The Deliver for Democracy Act, which is being introduced by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), is meant to provide relief to local news outlets by curbing rate increases and holding the USPS accountable for on-time delivery.
- It requires that the USPS must either achieve at least a 95% on-time delivery rate for periodicals or improve its on-time delivery rate by at least 2 percentage points in order to be able to unlock its 2% surcharge authority for papers.
- It also puts accountability measures in place, including directing the USPS to report its progress annually to the Postal Regulatory Commission and instructing the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and submit a report to Congress on options for alternate USPS pricing models that would support newspapers.
