Now, there finally appears to be serious legislative relief on the horizon for the Postal Service in the form of H.R. 3076 and its companion bill in the Senate, S. 1720. While much work needs to be done to see these bills passed into legislation—and certainly there may need to be amendments to the bills to set up final passage in Congress—we now can be hopeful that this legislation, along with other proposed postal legislation, can finally begin to fix the finances of the Postal Service.
If this can pass, along with NAPS-sponsored H.R. 1623, which would help bring sanity to our pay consultation process with the USPS, EAS employees will see an obstacle removed in the form of the continual refrain of USPS leadership that their finances do not allow for fair compensation for EAS employees.
While we are glad Congress finally has recognized the importance of the Postal Service to the fabric of American democracy, NAPS members have been telling Congress that, since 2007, the PAEA was detrimental to the interests of the Postal Service and its employees. Each and every year, NAPS members have taken the message to Capitol Hill that the PAEA must be repealed and replaced.
Suddenly, a confluence of events wrapped in political overtones has awakened Congress. Now, many pieces of proposed legislation have been advanced to correct the Postal Service’s systemic problems largely created by this law. Thank you, Congress, for recognizing the urgent needs of the Postal Service.