This week, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) voted to improve mail delivery across Illinois and strengthen the U.S. Postal Service with the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022.
By saving billions in funding, increasing performance transparency and creating new sources of revenue, this bipartisan legislation will strengthen the financial footing of the USPS so that it can continue to deliver reliable, on-time service to Illinoisans who rely on the Postal Service to receive hard-earned paychecks, lifesaving prescriptions, tax returns and more.
“The U.S. Postal Service has long been a model for the world, tying together communities in Illinois and across our nation,” said Congresswoman Bustos. “Unfortunately, decades of under-investment and onerous financial restrictions have undermined this essential public service. This week, I was proud to vote for the Postal Service Reform Act to take bold, bipartisan action to strengthen our post offices, support our postal workers and preserve reliable, nationwide mail service for generations to come.”
Because of the extremely unusual requirement that the Post Office fund 75 years of retiree benefits in advance, this institution is on the path to insolvency, facing an urgent shortage of funding as its delivery obligations continue to grow. The Postal Service currently provides mail to nearly 159 million delivery points and adds an additional one million every year. Yet even as postal workers service more locations, revenue has continued to fall due to lower mail volume.
Having suffered fourteen consecutive years of net losses, the Postal Service is projected to run out of funds entirely by 2024, threatening to worsen delays and service reductions that are already hampering the ability of Illinoisans to receive their mail and deliveries on time.
The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 enacts several overdue changes to address these financial challenges, improve mail delivery and support postal workers and retirees, including:
- Welcoming all future postal retirees into Medicare, delivering quality health care to our committed public servants while saving the Postal Service $22.6 billion over the next decade.
- Repealing a burdensome requirement forcing the Postal Service to pre-fund retirees’ health care 75 years in advance, saving $27 billion over the next decade. No other public or private entity faces this requirement.
- Promoting reliable delivery and transparency through a public-facing, online dashboard featuring national and local level service performance data.
- Codifying the Postal Service’s longtime tradition of delivering mail and packages six days per week.
- Allowing the Postal Service to raise additional revenues by offering non-commercial property and services to state, local and tribal governments.
