so the same language was used for both the House and Senate versions so they wouldn't have to go back and forth trying to reconcile the versions.
Some about that provision from an earlier article (and the approach for dealing with that later) -
Senators reach bipartisan deal to overhaul USPS finances, tighten accountability requirements
An identical version of the legislation is advancing in the House, where it is said to have enough support to pass
By Jacob Bogage
May 19, 2021 at 5:44 p.m. EDT
(snip)
Liberal House Democrats had pushed the chamber’s bill sponsors to take a more sweeping approach to postal reform, including discussions about consistently providing the mail agency with congressional appropriations. The Postal Service generally does not take taxpayer funding and subsists on the sale of mail and package products.
But House leaders, including Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), who led the mail coalition, wanted to bring Republicans along in the effort and opted for a more moderate approach. The legislation authorizes the Postal Service to offer non-mailing services to local governments, such as the sale of hunting and fishing permits, a priority for the liberal wing of the party. However, the new bipartisan deal does not incorporate a pilot program for banking services, a larger priority for liberals, or include resources or transparency requirements for election mail handling.
Maloney split off some of those components, along with $8 billion in funding for an electric vehicle fleet, into a separate bill that also has the requisite support to pass the House. The Senate has not taken up that legislation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/19/usps-senate-bipartisan-agreement/
Here is a recent article on where the Postal Banking initiative is (apparently they had a limited pilot test) -
Unimpressed with post office banking trial, backers eye new initiative
House provision would fund tests of various financial services at urban and rural post offices
By Caitlin Reilly
Posted March 1, 2022 at 9:00am
As lawmakers work on finishing fiscal 2022 appropriations, they’ll have to decide whether to keep a House spending provision that would allow some post offices to offer more financial services. Coming in the wake of a largely ignored U.S. Postal Service test of a check-cashing service, a new initiative could test whether the Postal Service can attract millions of Americans who now lack banking services, serve areas largely vacated by banks and make money by doing so. Those tests depend on the Senate going along with the $6 million for a pilot project in the House’s fiscal 2022 Financial Services appropriations bill. Lawmakers are trying to finish the appropriations work before the current continuing resolution expires on March 11.
“We are looking to provide very basic services at post offices across our country because they are in every neighborhood,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. “We're looking at simple things like cashing their check, or paying a utility bill or selling a savings bond.” The House proposal would allow five rural and five urban post offices to offer nonbank services such as free ATMs, wire transfers, check cashing and bill payments. Post offices already sell money orders. Proponents of postal banking hope the test does better than one the Postal Service launched in September, offering check cashing in four East Coast urban and suburban sites. Customers cashed six checks, generating $35.70 in fees, according to a Postal Service regulatory filing in January. The pilot capped the amount at $500, charged a $5.95 fee and required users to buy a gift card.
“I don't know whether a pilot can be called a serious pilot if it's not in a neighborhood that actually has demand for the services,” said Porter McConnell, the Take on Wall Street Campaign director at Americans for Financial Reform. McConnell, who in 2020 co-founded the Save the Post Office Coalition, said high fees, the low limit on gift card amounts and the absence of advertising also undermined the pilot. “The checks cashed need to get up to $2,000. It needs to be a lot cheaper. It needs to be cheaper than Walmart, not $2 more expensive. It needs to be in neighborhoods that need it,” McConnell said. “It needs to be advertised. It needs to be sent out in mailers. At the very least, some posters, some signage. That is all very basic.”
Postal banking is a catchall term for financial services offered through the Postal Service, including checking and savings accounts, small loans, and nonbank services such as cash machines or check cashing. Research by the University of Michigan in May 2021 found that 60 million people live in a census tract with a post office but not a bank branch. From 2008 to 2020, more than 13,000 bank branches closed, according to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. In 2017, 8.4 million households lacked a savings and checking account — the definition of unbanked — and another 24.2 million households had a bank account — the underbanked — but still used alternative financial services such as payday loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. More recent FDIC studies lack comparable data on underbanked households.
https://rollcall.com/2022/03/01/unimpressed-with-usps-banking-trial-backers-eye-new-initiative/
The new "pilot" had a cost of $6 million and they were hoping to get it into the upcoming FY2022 government appropriations bill that is something like 2700 pages long, so have to dig around to see if something that "piddly" survived the cut.
= new reply since forum marked as read
