Representative Angie Craig Joins Colleagues in Reintroducing Bipartisan Legislation to Save the Postal Service

WASHINGTON, DC – This week, U.S. Representative Angie Craig joined a bipartisan group of her colleagues as an original cosponsor of legislation to address longstanding financial challenges at the United States Postal Service (USPS). In recent years, operating deficits at USPS have grown, largely due to a law passed in 2006 which required the agency to prefund the health care benefits of future retirees – a burdensome requirement that is not imposed on any other federal agency or private entity. The USPS Fairness Act would provide the United States Postal Service (USPS) much-needed financial relief by ending the agency's prefunding mandate on future retiree health benefits and returning the agency to a more traditional funding method.

"The United States Postal Service is one of our nation's most cherished institutions – the only carrier that guarantees delivery to every American at an affordable price," said Representative Craig. "Minnesota families – especially those living in rural communities – depend on postal workers to deliver life-saving medications, important packages and mail-in ballots in areas that would otherwise go underserviced by private companies. The Postal Service's prefunding mandate is a senseless and arbitrary policy that has burdened this critical agency for far too long – and I am proud to help lead the effort to rescind it once and for all."

In February 2020, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 309-106, with 87 Republicans voting in favor of the bill. The USPS Fairness Act is endorsed by the American Postal Workers Union, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the National Association of Postal Supervisors, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, and the Communications Workers of America.