Pascrell Backs Landmark Postal Reform

Bipartisan package will give Post Office its financial footing after years of instability and dysfunction, preserve six-day delivery for good

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today voted in favor of H.R. 3076, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2022, landmark legislation that will stabilize the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) finances which have been in disarray for over 15 years.

Among key provisions, this legislation will: (1) require future USPS retirees to enroll in Medicare, thereby lowering premiums for USPS and saving $23 billion; (2) finally eliminate requiring USPS to prefund its employee pensions 50 years into the future, saving $27 billion and stabilizing postal finances; and (3) protect six-day a week delivery.

“I have long demanded needed reforms to improve the postal service because tens of millions of Americans are crying out to make their post office work again. I hear them and share their frustrations. Today Congress is taking a major step to fix the post office,” said Rep. Pascrell, who authored a heralded 2019 essay demanding many of the reforms passed today. “For two straight congresses the House has moved with urgency to right USPS. With this legislation, we can guarantee universal six-day a week delivery and finally abolish the onerous pension prefunding mandate crushing the Postal Service’s finances.  The other chamber should act quickly for once and pass this legislation. The Post Office is one of our most cherished institutions and today’s reforms can not only let it survive but flourish in the decades ahead.”

Rep. Pascrell has been the leading member of Congress seeking positive postal reform. On January 25, 2021, Pascrell became the first member of Congress calling on President Biden to fire the entire Postal Board of Governors sitting before his election for their silence and complicity in DeJoy’s ongoing sabotage of postal operations. In February, Pascrell immediately praised the nominations by President Biden of the three new nominees to the USPS Board of Governors and on March 18, Pascrell and Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03) led over 50 House Democrats urging Biden to immediately remove the then-sitting USPS Board of Governors. On June 3, Pascrell urged Biden’s three nominees to the postal board to remove DeJoy. Last October, Pascrell led a letter to President Biden requesting that he replace USPS Board of Governors Chairman Ron Bloom, who had consistently backed DeJoy. On November 19, Pascrell praised President Biden’s announcement that he would replace Ron Bloom and nominate in his place Daniel Tangherlini, former Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA).

Pascrell concluded, “Even if enacted into law, this transformative plan is not a complete solution. USPS leadership at the top is unacceptable. Louis DeJoy and his enablers should be fired and replaced for their mismanagement and misdeeds.”

Since this postal crisis began, Rep. Pascrell has aggressively demanded accountability from USPS. On May 21, 2020, Pascrell wrote to USPS Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb demanding an investigation of turmoil at the USPS, stemming from a pattern of interference engineered by the Trump administration in its efforts to destabilize the post office.

On August 14, 2020 Pascrell became the first member of Congress to call for DeJoy and Trump to be investigated by a state criminal grand jury for their dismantling the Post Office, making a criminal referral to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal alleging Trump and DeJoy subverted state elections.

On September 30, 2020 Pascrell led members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation in a letter to Postmaster General DeJoy demanding an emergency visit to the Dominic Daniels mail sorting center in Kearny and requesting information on USPS’s ability to carry out New Jersey’s all vote-by-mail general election. In October, Pascrell made a surprise appearance at the Daniels Facility and demanded access.

###