Senate passes $107 billion overhaul of USPS, lauding mail agency's role in pandemic response

[L. Coyote]

Source: Washington Post

The Senate on Tuesday approved a $107 billion financial overhaul of the long-beleaguered U.S. Postal Service, providing monetary relief for the agency that leaders say will allow it to modernize and invest in efficient service.

President Biden has signaled that he plans to sign the bill, which has already cleared the House.

The Postal Service Reform Act, which passed 79-19, provides financial flexibility for the mail agency to take on improvements that have been debated for years. Republicans have traditionally criticized the Postal Service as a poster child for government waste and incompetence, even as the agency won high marks for approval and trust from the public. During the pandemic, Democrats hailed mail workers as everyday heroes, and pushed the agency as an example of the benefits of robust government services.

But the Postal Service’s role throughout the coronavirus pandemic forced lawmakers to reach a consensus on restructuring its balance sheet, with worries that the agency could not withstand another financial shock. Nearly half of all voters cast their ballots by mail during the 2020 election .................

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/08/usps-senate-biden/

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Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Senate Passes Bipartisan Postal Service Overhaul

The Senate passed a post-office overhaul designed to cut billions in costs and help the service address delivery concerns. The bill now goes to President Biden.

Link to tweet

Senate Passes Bipartisan Postal Service Overhaul
Measure designed to save billions of dollars in costs now goes to President Biden’s desk.

POLITICS

Senate Passes Bipartisan Postal Service Overhaul

Measure designed to save billions of dollars in costs now goes to President Biden’s desk

By Siobhan Hughes
https://twitter.com/siobhanehughes
[e-mail]
March 8, 2022 6:34 pm ET

WASHINGTON—The Senate passed legislation designed to put the U.S. Postal Service on stronger financial footing and avoid a government bailout, including by repealing a requirement that it prefund retiree health benefits. The measure will next go to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

The bill passed the Senate 79-19 Tuesday, after easily clearing the House last month. The legislation is more than a decade in the making.

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[FailureToCommunicate]

2. Excellent news!

[yaesu]

3. i hope this included doing away with pre paying for retirement healthcare

which was a poison pill slipped in by the rethugs years ago. Also not happy with them buying gas vehicles but oh well.

[former9thward]

9. It does include that elimination.

But that does not help the PO cash flow. They have not made that payment since 2010. Congress has waived it every year since then so it did not affect their bottom line.

[StClone]

11. That was undone back in February

https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-passes-bill-easing-retiree-burdens-for-u-s-postal-service-11644373813

[yaesu]

14. Thanks, I knew it was going to be included in some legislation, lost track of which one, nt

[calimary]

16. Thank goodness.

Fucking greedy republi-CON poison pill.

[a kennedy]

17. I never understood that retirement business.....INSANE. 🤬

[MichMan]

21. The 2006 Postal Reform act that everyone complains about passed both houses unanimously

Including yes votes by many current office holders

[orangecrush]

4. K&R

[paleotn]

5. Finally!!

Now, can we dump DeJackass please.

[former9thward]

7. DeJoy lobbied for this bill.

I doubt you will see him going anywhere soon.

[paleotn]

8. The man who wanted to slow down mail service?

The Trump appointee appointed to kill the US Postal Service? Like Journey use to sing...Don't stop believing.

[Jazz Jon]

6. Why Did the Repukes let this slide?

I am flummoxed. Why would Republicans let this pass? Letting the postal service die under the artificial burdens that were placed on it by none other than Congress, would be a big blow to democracy and would cut much needed service for average Americans.

That means that nobody filibustered it, and Joe Manchin didn't even try to water it down?

Why then, Republicans did you not let the USPS die!?

GOP, you could have dealt a major blow to America and average Americans and yet passed it up?

Somebody explain this please.

[StClone]

12. BIG, HOT, Blowback!

They had a devil of a time defending the killing of the USPS. They were torched by their voters. Couldn't hide, couldn't run for re-election if they wouldn't have protected vaccine, insulin, medicine, paychecks, documents, notification, and perishable time-sensitive material deliveries. I think they will just focus on other scams.

[Tree Lady]

18. Dejoy is still there and doesn't seem to be leaving

Do you think a deal could have been made republicans will vote for this bill but keep Dejoy?

I have been thinking this ever since I read about them not pushing to get rid of him.

[Cha]

10. Wow.. how the hell did that ever

get passed! Magats hate the PO or is it just Mail in Ballots that scares the Shit pit pf them?

💙💛

[BumRushDaShow]

13. This is excellent news because that "pre-funding" bullshit will be gone!

That draconian boobytrap was required by the 2006 law - H.R.6407 - Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act

[MichMan]

22. Which passed both the house and senate in 2006 with unanimous consent

Including support by many current office holders

[BumRushDaShow]

23. That is materially incorrect

Here is a link to that 2006 legislation - https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/6407

Here is the link to the timeline of the steps through passage - https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/6407/all-actions?overview=closed#tabs

where the House had a "voice vote" and the bill was NOT passed by "unanimous consent" (only the Senate moved to do that) -

12/08/2006-10:33pm House | On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended | Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H9160-9179)

And in the case of when that vote occurred, Democrats were the minority party in the House at the time because the new Congress to come after that year's November's election (elected a month prior to this vote), had not been sworn in yet (but would eventually be in January 2007). With a voice vote, you have no idea who in the House actually voted for it.

What occurred 16 years ago is irrelevant.

[MichMan]

25. A voice vote means support was so strong, there was no need to record individual votes

Since it passed unanimously in the Senate, it is interesting to look back and see what Senators supported it back then. I hate it when people vote for in favor of legislation (like this " pre funding bullshit" ), and later act shocked that something so nefarious got passed somehow, instead of being held accountable for their votes.

My point was that the 2006 bill was extremely popular with both parties at the time it was passed, same as this one was. Hopefully, there isn't anything in this bill that people will regret later.

FYI, I wasn't the one that first brought up something from 16 years ago, I responded to it.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. "A voice vote means support was so strong, there was no need to record individual votes"

Um no, it means that a motion for the yays and nays was REJECTED by the GOP Speaker (President) Pro Tempore (and in a tag-team move, the motion was offered by the one who would one day become VP... surprise surprise) -

From the Congressional Record for December 8, 2006 at the conclusion of the debate on the bill (scroll to the very bottom of the page which shows the very last portion of the transcript of the session upon conclusion of work on this bill) - https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2006/12/8/house-section/article/H9160-2

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 6407, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). In the opinion of the Chair,
two-thirds of those voting have responded in the affirmative.
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were refused.
So (two-thirds of those voting having responded in the affirmative)
the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

And maybe you need to take a look at the Congressional Record regarding what the sentiment was rather than guessing about it. You are making a lot of assertions without any links to supporting articles denoting this.

One of the things to keep in mind about it too was this odd but revealing thought -

Editorial: The most insane law by Congress, ever? Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006
Posted on July 6, 2014 by postal

(snip)

Who sponsored this cockamamie legislation? It was former Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican from northern Virginia who served in Congress from 1995 until 2008. He’s now a Washington lobbyist for Deloitte, a huge accounting and consulting company.

Last week I reached out to Davis to learn how and why this happened. One thing you should know is that the bill was bipartisan. The cosponsors were Reps. Henry Waxman, D- Calif., Danny Davis D-Ill. and John McHugh, R-New York.

The surprising thing I heard from Davis was that he agrees the future-funding retirement provision was crazy. That was never in the original legislation, he said.

It was obvious that the Post Office was and still is facing head winds due to a general move of bill payments/transactions moving online vs via snail mail, but how to deal with that was the difficult part and obviously would not be solved by that piece of bullshit legislation.

[MichMan]

27. 67% yes votes in the House and unanimous in the Senate

looks like pretty wide spread support for passage to me. The votes speak for themselves.

You are free to categorize it otherwise as you please.

[BumRushDaShow]

28. "67% yes votes in the House and unanimous in the Senate"

You apparently don't watch CSPAN nor have watched any congressional sessions and so don't know how this process works. You have been wrong in every single assertion.

There is absolutely zero proof that "67%" of those in the chamber actually "voted" either way - it was simply a declaration by the (GOP) Speaker Pro-Tempore.

I.e., based on the loudness of the VOICES and a "guess". In fact read the transcript again -

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). In the opinion of the Chair,
two-thirds of those voting have responded in the affirmative.

"Opinion" does not equal "fact". In fact (and this is a fact since they refused to do a roll call), the Pro-Tem had ZERO idea how many were in the chamber at that time and who was actually "voting".

THAT is why they do "roll call votes" so that you know exactly who even showed up and either voted "yay", or voted "nay", or voted "present", or who didn't vote at all and just sat there silently.

Keep digging and start doing some research.

[TxVietVet]

15. FINALLY the DEMS took action to help save the USPS.

The conservanazis have been choking the Postal Service to death for years and almost succeeded under tRump .

[oasis]

19. ImWithThem!

[Magoo48]

20. Great news.

[Johnny2X2X]

24. This was all about Union Bustin

People shouldn't forget why Republicans went after the USPS in the first place, they are anti labor and the USPS has a large and powerful public union. And once they started attacking the USPS, companies like Fed Ex and UPS couldn't wait to throw cash at them for making the USPS less competitive.

[lagomorph777]

29. Good. Now will they confirm the board members to fire DeJoy?

'cause it looks like DOJ is doing nothing about his crime spree.