Hello,

We know reforming the postal service is important to you, so I wanted to take a moment to let you know what we were able to get done in the House this week. We passed the bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act, which will make long overdue changes to the USPS to improve its service and financial stability. The Senate will likely pass it in the coming weeks as well, sending it to President Biden to sign into law.

This is critically important. And we all know why: the USPS is a mess, which has left our communities without reliable postal service for too long. Our mail carriers and postal workers are working hard during a difficult time, but the USPS leadership has failed them, and us. And we know what this poor service means — seniors not getting the medication they need; workers not getting their hard earned paychecks; and families getting late charges on their bills because they didn’t receive the bill on time in the first place.

And that’s why it was crucial that we passed this bill in the House. It will require six-day delivery for both mail and packages. The bill finally rids the USPS of their burdensome obligation to pre-fund retiree health benefits, which no other federal or private entity needs to do. This provision alone saves the USPS $27 billion over the next decade. These changes will bring better service to our communities and put the postal service in its strongest financial position in years.

This means Vermont businesses will have reliable mail service to succeed, our seniors and most vulnerable will get their prescriptions and checks when they are supposed to, and our rural newspapers will get delivered to your doorstep on time.

We have been working for years to pass this bill and because of you and your support, we were able to get it done for Vermont and the country.

While there’s more work to be done, this is a long overdue step in the right direction to get the USPS back on track — and we couldn’t have done it without the collective action from this team. Thank you for stepping up and making your voice heard. It made a difference.

Thanks,

Peter