Government affairs

As lawmakers head back today to their various districts and states, they leave behind a busy week of securing funding for the government through December 20, electing a new chair of a committee key to NALC’s priorities, and advancing legislation and proposals to help working people. With ongoing House impeachment proceedings followed by a potential Senate trial potentially dragging into January 2020, this leaves very little space for a long-term funding deal or other legislative priorities and proceedings in an already contentious Congress.

House activity

On Wednesday, the House Democratic Caucus voted to elect Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) as the new chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Chair Maloney is the committee’s first female chair and had previously been functioning as the Acting Chair of the committee following the passing of former Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who passed away in October.

Incoming Chair Maloney has championed a number of issues over her career such as women’s health, consumer protections, and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act, which was finally fully funded through 2090 and signed into law on July 29. On the postal front, she’s committed to ensuring “the postal service remains solvent and continues its presence in our communities.” Read more here.

On Thursday, the House voted 251-158 to pass the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 1309). The bill would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue new standards requiring health care and social service employers to write and implement a workplace violence prevention plan to prevent and protect employees from violent incidents and assaults at work. Employees in these industries are five times more likely to sustain workplace violence injuries, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data cited in the bill text. Read more here.

On Friday, a bipartisan group of 38 lawmakers sent a letter in opposition to a new rule proposed by the Department of Labor to shift all retirement plan disclosures away from the current paper system to one where it is all posted online. The plan would force all applicable workers to be placed on this electronic system where if workers want to continue to receive paper documents, they would have to opt-out of the electronic system, rather than opt-in to the change. The Coalition for Paper Options (CPO), of which NALC is a part, submitted comments in opposition to the rule. Read more about the rule here, view the letter here, and view the CPO comments here.

Senate activity

On Wednesday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced a proposal “to avert the collapse of critically underfunded” multiemployer pension plans. While letter carriers and other postal employees’ pensions are not part of these multiemployer plans and are not at risk, an estimated 1 million to 1.5 million Americans are in plans that may become insolvent within the next 20 years without federal intervention. The proposal is an alternative to the bipartisan Butch Lewis Act of 2019 (S. 2254), introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Read more here.

Administration Activity

Following the House and Senate passage of a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 20, the President signed the CR into law this evening thereby averting a third government shutdown under his presidency. This is the second CR Congress has passed since the start of fiscal year (FY) 2020 in order to give appropriators and leadership more time to resolve their differences on long-term funding. Read more here.

NALC Priority Bills/Resolutions

H.R. 2382 – USPS Fairness Act
Status: Introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
Co-sponsors: 289 (231 Democrats – 58 Republicans)

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: 257 (206 Democrats – 51 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: 266 (225 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: 290 (217 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: 203 (178 Democrats – 25 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: 48 (36 Democrats – 12 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.