Government affairs

Lawmakers were in Washington DC this week and received the President Trump’s upcoming fiscal year 2021 budget request, which features many of the same cuts to pay and benefits for the federal workforce and the U.S. Postal Service. Thankfully, such budget proposals are view as “dead-on-arrival” in Congress, but they do show worrying signs of the priorities of our Executive Branch.

House activity

In December 2019, the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law, which included language that would provide up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to federal employees. Certain federal employees, including letter carrier and other postal employees were not included in this legislation.

On Thursday, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), and Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) introduced the Federal Employee Parental Leave Technical Correction Act (H.R. 5885). This bill would provide even more federal employees with the same 12 weeks of paid family leave. Unfortunately, letter carriers and postal employees are not included in this legislation either. NALC is working to ensure all federal employees may receive the same 12 weeks of paid family leave and will be sure to keep letter carriers updated on the latest developments.

Administration activity

On Monday, the White House released its $4.8 trillion fiscal year 2021 (FY21) budget proposal. Overall, the budget proposal would increase defense spending from $738 billion to $740.5 billion in FY21 while cutting non-defense spending from $635 billion to $590 billion, and it seeks to slash $844 billion over 10 years from the “President’s health reform vision,” which assumes the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare). Additionally, it would cut $450 billion from Medicare and $150 billion from Medicaid over 10 years, despite the President’s insistence while he was candidate in 2015 that he would not cut Medicare or Medicaid. With regards to the U.S. Postal Service, just like in previous budget requests, the White House proposed over $90 billion in cuts specific to operations and workforce compensation, which you can read more about here.

While White House budget proposals typically are ‘non-starters’ on Capitol Hill, lawmakers do discuss, reference and debate these proposals as various House, Senate and caucus proposals are being formulated. To that end, it is important for letter carriers to urge their representatives in Washington to reject attacks on the federal workforce as well as on the Postal Service and its networks.

NALC Priority Bills/Resolutions

H.R. 2382/S. 2965 – USPS Fairness Act
Status: Passed House of Representatives, introduced in Senate by Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)
Co-sponsors: 2 Senate (2 Democrats – 0 Republicans)
House vote: 309 Yea (222 Democrats – 87 Republicans) – 106 Nays (105 Republicans – 1 Independent)

To repeal the requirement that the United States Postal Service prepay future retirement benefits.

House Resolution 23 (H. Res. 23) – Door Delivery
Status: Introduced by Reps. Susan Davis (D-CA) and Peter King (R-NY)
Co-sponsors: 258 (206 Democrats – 52 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of door delivery for all business and residential customers.

House Resolution 33 (H. Res. 33) – Anti-privatization
Status: Introduced by Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) and Rodney Davis (R-IL)
Co-sponsors: 267 (226 Democrats – 41 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress should take all appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal Service remains an independent establishment of the Federal Government and is not subject to privatization.

House Resolution 54 (H. Res. 54) – Six-day Delivery
Status: Introduced by Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Sam Graves (R-MO)
Co-sponsors: 291 (218 Democrats – 73 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of its six-day mail delivery service.

House Resolution 60 (H. Res. 60) – Service Standards
Status: Introduced by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Co-sponsors: 206 (180 Democrats – 26 Republicans)

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to restore service standards in effect as of July 1, 2012.

Senate Resolution 99 (S. Res. 99) – Anti-privatization
Status: Introduced by Sens. Gary Peters and Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Co-sponsors: 53 (43 Democrats – 8 Republicans – 2 Independents)

Expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress should take all appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal Service remains an independent establishment of the Federal Government and is not subject to privatization in whole or in part.

H.R. 2478 – Fed Retirement Fairness Act
Status: Introduced by Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Tom Cole (R-OK)
Co-sponsors: 54 (41 Democrats – 13 Republicans)

To provide certain federal employees the opportunity to make catch-up retirement contributions for time spent as temporary employees after Dec. 31, 1988, thus making such time creditable service under the Federal Employees Retirement System. Now applies to temporary postal employees, such as letter carriers who spent time as casuals, TEs, and CCAs.