Postal Service Reform Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I salute the leadership of Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and Ranking Member James Comer. I thank them both for bringing this important legislation to the floor and their determined leadership to have a bipartisan bill, which is really important, and doing so, again, in a spirit of bipartisanship that would make our Founders proud.

Madam Speaker, 230 years ago this month our fledgling Nation took a bold step toward the future by formally establishing the modern United States Postal Service, a beautiful thread that continues to weave together communities across America.

Today, I rise in support of the Postal Service Reform Act, which takes long overdue actions to strengthen this pillar of our democracy so that it can continue to serve our communities for decades to come.

Since our earliest days, when couriers on horseback traversed the Colonies, America's postal system has been a model for the world.

Indeed, our Founders knew the value of a strong Postal Service, enshrining it into Article I, Section 8 of our Constitution: ``The Congress shall have the power . . . to establish post offices and post roads.''

And, when Alexis de Tocqueville visited in the early 19th century, he was in awe of how our Postal Service brought Americans together, writing there was ``no French province in which the inhabitants knew each other as well as 13 million men spread over the extent of the United States.''

Yet, decades of poor policy decisions and chronic underinvestment have put this all-American institution on the path of insolvency. As was indicated by the gentleman who just spoke, experts project that USPS will run out of cash as soon as 2024; and reduced services and added delays would only continue and bring harm in every ZIP Code.

Meanwhile, our Nation continues to ask more and more of our postal workers. Today, they deliver to nearly 159 million delivery points-- imagine that--159 million delivery points--across the Nation, and they add one million more delivery points each year. And millions of Americans depend on the USPS to deliver prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns, absentee ballots, and more.

I will just say in the period of COVID the U.S. Postal Service was angelic. It was delivering prescriptions to our veterans who were in need of those prescriptions, as well as to seniors and others. So we thank them for that.

So this legislation would put the Postal Service on stronger financial footing while improving the reliability of its services while protecting the benefits of employees and retirees.

The legislation makes bipartisan, commonsense provisions that will welcome all future postal retirees into Medicare, free the U.S. Postal Service from the unnecessary requirement to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance--and we call that a financial albatross-- and improve USPS reliability with new transparency measures that will help ensure consistent on-time mail delivery.

I have much more on that that I will submit for the Record, Madam Speaker.

As a mother of five and grandmother of nine, I heavily depend on the Postal Service for all kinds of things. Children write letters to Santa. They still write letters to Santa. They do not text Santa. Some do, maybe, but the letter to Santa is very important. Parents sharing graduation photos; friends offering condolences; wedding announcements; whatever it is, it is still the duty of the Postal Service to deliver it. And servicemembers communicating with home is so important.

This important legislation takes the strong step to empower the Postal Service to continue its crucial mission to improve our lives, touch our hearts, and connect our communities.

With that, I once again want to thank Chairwoman Maloney and Ranking Member Comer, and I urge a strong bipartisan vote for this legislation.

And again, even though we are communicating electronically in so many ways, there is no substitute for that personal connection that the Postal Service provides for us.

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