News & information

114th Congress convenes

Last Tuesday, the 114th Congress convened and all 535 members of the House and Senate were sworn in. In the house, there are 247 Republicans and 188 Democrats; in the Senate, 54 Republicans and 44 Democrats, plus two Independents who will continue caucusing with the Democrats.

With 74 new members of Congress coming in, letter carriers have a lot of work to do as we prepare for this session and the proposals that are sure to come quickly. With regard to letter carrier issues, our continued emphasis will be on addressing the pre-funding burden, the importance of maintaining services such as six-day mail delivery and door delivery, and fighting against operational cuts while promoting initiatives that would allow the Postal Service to innovate to serve the needs of residential and business customers. If your member of Congress is new, we encourage you to make contact and apprise him or her about the importance of the U.S. Postal Service in your district.

As you know, House and Senate recesses and district work periods provide an ideal opportunity for you to engage with members of Congress while they are at home, and we encourage all letter carriers to use those opportunities during these in-district dates. Click here to view the 114th congressional calendar for the House and Senate.

Please contact the NALC Department of Government Affairs if you have any questions.

More congressional committee assignments announced (updated)

The chairman of the House committee with responsibility for the Postal Service, the Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee, is Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). Chaffetz takes over for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who is no longer a member of the OGR Committee. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) continues his service as ranking member.

The following assignments to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform are expected to include:

In the Senate, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was elected chairman of that chamber’s committee with USPS oversight, the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC). Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) stays on as ranking member.

For more than 30 years, appropriations language has required the Postal Service to deliver the mail six days a week (at least).

In the 114th Congress, the Senate Appropriations Committee is chaired by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) with Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) the ranking member.

(For a full list of assignments to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, refer to the Dec. 19 Legislative Update.)

In the House, the Appropriations Committee is led by Chairman Hal Rodgers (R-KY) and Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-NY). Members include:

For the House and Senate subcommittees on Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), both chambers are still finalizing their rosters. On the House side, Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL) remain as FSGG chairman with Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) staying as ranking member.

NALC will keep you up-to-date on committee assignments as they are announced. Please continue to monitor the Government Affairs web page for news and updates regarding the 114th Congress and NALC’s legislative and political efforts.

Six-day mail delivery

Once the 114th Congress was sworn in, in the House of Representatives Reps. Sam Graves (R-MO) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) wasted no time in renewing their commitment to preserving six-day mail delivery by quickly introducing H.Res. 12.

One of the first pieces of legislation introduced in this session of Congress, H.Res. 12 is identical to previous sessions’ resolutions that called on Congress and the Postal Service to take all appropriate steps to continue six-day mail delivery.

The current resolution already has 45 co-sponsors (see below). The last version, introduced early in the 113th Congress (2013-2014), wound up with 228 co-sponsors from both political parties.

“We are encouraged to see our friends in Congress once again take up the fight to maintain Saturday mail delivery service,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “We hope that the rest of the members of the House and Senate see any attempts to eliminate this or any other postal service for what they truly are: short-sighted excuses for failing to address an onerous pre-funding mandate that perpetuates a cut-cut-cut mentality.

“Maintaining six-day mail delivery service meets the demands of American households and businesses,” Rolando said. “We applaud Congressmen Graves and Connolly for leading the effort to preserve this service.”

Click here for a fact sheet on H.Res. 12.

Door delivery

Reps. Susan Davis (D-CA), David Joyce (R-OH) and Peter King (R-NY) are reintroducing their door-delivery resolution for the 114th Congress, calling on the House and Senate to “take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of door delivery for all business and residential customers.”

The resolution, H.Res. 28, is identical to H.Res. 711, which was introduced last August during the 113th Congress and which ended up with 75 sponsors from both parties. In the 113th Congress, proposals to cut mail services such as door delivery were common. The NALC and our allies in Congress and among postal stakeholders have been instrumental in the so-far successful fight against these and other service cuts that, if implemented, would be detrimental to postal customers, especially to senior citizens (who rely on prescription medications being delivered to their door) and to disabled customers.

For businesses, eliminating door delivery would undercut the success of the Customer Connect program, where letter carriers use their personal connections to solicit new business in person. Besides, a Government Accountability Office report found that cluster boxes were so unpopular that less than 0.8 percent of business door-delivery customers last year opted to make the switch. (The report found the percentage was even lower for residences: 0.1 percent.)

“We are grateful to Representatives Davis, Joyce and King for introducing this resolution right out of the gate in this session of Congress,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “Cutting vital services like door delivery is not the way to save the Postal Service, and preserving the guarantee of door delivery will be crucial in fending off such attacks. We urge every member of the House—on both sides of the aisle—to sign on to this resolution.”

Fact sheet on door delivery | H.Res. 28 on Congress.gov

2015 calendar for the 114th Congress

Click here for a downloadable version