In the News

Saying it preserves a crucial link, especially for those with limited mobility, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, celebrated a new postal reform law Monday.

“For two years, in the worst moments of the pandemic‚ mail was delivered every day on time,” Neal said outside the U.S. Postal Service’s main Springfield office on Main Street, accompanied by local postal workers. “Street upon street, in the winter, with masking and unmasking, that mail was delivered.”

Neal is chairman of the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means, where much of the reform law was crafted. The law passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Joe Biden April 6.

Under the law, the U.S. Postal Service is no longer required to prefund retirees’ health care 75 years in advance. Congress imposed the pre-funding requirement in 2006, and it has contributed to budget shortfalls over the years.

“No actuary in the country, public or private, would require that,” Neal said.

By eliminating the requirement, the reform law is expected to save $27 billion over the next decade. That’s money, Neal said, that can be plowed back into the postal service. The postal service doesn’t receive taxpayer funding.

The law also puts postal retirees into Medicare, saving the postal service $22.6 billion over the next decade. Again, Neal said the money can be put back into the postal service.

The law preserves six-day-a-week delivery and allows the postal service to raise additional revenues by offering noncommercial property and services to state, local and tribal governments.

What the law doesn’t do is provide for new postal vehicles. Neal said that process is still pending, and he supports the transition to electric vehicles when practical.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey supports a plan to put battery electric vehicles in service on carrier routes starting in late 2023. Postmaster Louis DeJoy has called for more gas-powered trucks, citing the cost of electric vehicles.

COVID-19 challenged the postal service locally, said Russell Evans of American Postal Workers Union Local 497.

The rise in online shopping led the postal service to open an overflow facility on Brookdale Drive. In January, the postal service pulled package handling equipment out of Brookdale Drive and used it to fulfill orders for COVID tests.

Michael E. Harazmus, president of National Association of Letter Carriers Western Massachusetts Branch 46 in Springfield, said the postal service is still shorthanded, facing the same labor shortages seen elsewhere in the economy. But he said the reform law clears the way to address those concerns.