Government affairs

Today, the House of Representatives passed the Defense, Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2021 H.R. 7617 (116),  which provides funding to the majority of the federal government through September 30.

FSGG legislation has broad jurisdiction over agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Department, the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration, the Judiciary, the Small Businesses Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Postal Service.

As it relates to the Postal Service, every year, NALC works hard to ensure that our long-standing language preserving six-day mail delivery is in place. Once again, those efforts were successful due to the hard work of letter carriers in educating members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.

In addition, appropriators also included an amendment that would prevent the Postal Service from implementing the Expedited to Street Afternoon Sortation (ESAS) pilot program or from making changes to services standards in effect on July 31, 2020. The inclusion of this language comes following numerous reports of service disruptions nationwide following the Postal Service’s recent announcement on ESAS.

The House-passed measure also included an amendment to provide $2 million to the Postal Service for a postal banking pilot program and funding for the Postal Service Office of Inspector General to “encourage the Postal Service” to investigate mail delivery issues in Chicago. NALC will monitor all postal related measures as the Senate continues its work on the appropriations process. 

The $1.3 trillion measure wrapped six appropriations measures into one, effectively cutting down on time spent on individually appropriations measures during Covid-19. Last week, the House passed appropriations covering the Departments of State, Agriculture, Interior, and Veterans Affairs, leaving only Homeland Security and the Legislative Branch left to complete.

With House consideration of FY 2021 appropriations near complete, the Senate must complete work on its appropriations process. NALC will continue to monitor any provisions related to the Postal Service.