I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3577 
To authorize the United States Postal Service to provide certain nonpostal 
property, products, and services on behalf of State, local, and tribal 
governments. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 27, 2019 
Mr. MCADAMS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Reform 
A BILL 
To authorize the United States Postal Service to provide 
certain nonpostal property, products, and services on be-
half of State, local, and tribal governments. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. POSTAL SERVICE PROGRAM FOR STATE, 
LOCAL, AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS. 
(a) POSTAL SERVICE PROGRAM FOR STATE, LOCAL, 
AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS.—Part IV of title 39, United 
States Code, is amended by adding after chapter 36 the 
following: 
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‘‘CHAPTER 
37—POSTAL 
SERVICE 
PRO-
GRAM FOR STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIB-
AL GOVERNMENTS 
‘‘Sec. 
‘‘3701. Purpose. 
‘‘3702. Definitions. 
‘‘3703. Postal Service program for State, local, and tribal governments. 
‘‘§ 3701. Purpose 
‘‘The purpose of this chapter is to enable the Postal 
Service to increase its net revenues through providing spe-
cific nonpostal property, products, and services that are 
expressly authorized by this chapter. Postal Service reve-
nues and expenses under this chapter shall be funded 
through the Postal Service Fund. 
‘‘§ 3702. Definitions 
‘‘In this chapter— 
‘‘(1) the term ‘costs attributable’ has the mean-
ing given such term in section 3631; and 
‘‘(2) the term ‘year’ means a fiscal year. 
‘‘§ 3703. Postal Service program for State, local, and 
tribal governments 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (d), and 
notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the Post-
al Service may establish a program under which the Postal 
Service may enter into an agreement with an agency of 
a State government, local government, or tribal govern-
ment to provide property, products, or services on behalf 
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of the agency, if providing the property, products, or serv-
ices— 
‘‘(1) provides enhanced value to the public, such 
as by lowering the cost or raising the quality of the 
property, products, or services or by making the 
property, products, or services more accessible; 
‘‘(2) does not interfere with or detract from the 
value of postal services, including— 
‘‘(A) with respect to the cost and efficiency 
of postal services; and 
‘‘(B) that providing the property, products, 
or services will not unreasonably restrict access 
to postal retail service, such as through in-
creased customer waiting time or reduced ac-
cess to parking; and 
‘‘(3) will provide a reasonable contribution to 
the institutional costs of the Postal Service, which 
shall include reimbursement that covers not less 
than 100 percent of the costs attributable to pro-
viding the property, products, and services under the 
agreement in each year. 
‘‘(b) PUBLIC NOTICE.—Not later than 90 days before 
beginning to provide property, products, or services under 
an agreement described in subsection (a), the Postal Serv-
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‘‘(2) RESPONSE.—The Postal Service shall 
make reasonable efforts to provide written responses 
to the comments described in paragraph (1) on the 
website of the Postal Service not later than 30 days 
before beginning to provide the property, products, 
or services. 
‘‘(d) APPROVAL REQUIRED.—The Postal Service may 
not enter into an agreement under subsection (a) unless 
a majority of the Board of Governors of the Postal Service 
approve, by a recorded vote that is publicly disclosed on 
the website of the Postal Service— 
‘‘(1) the agreement; or 
‘‘(2) an agreement under subsection (a) with 
another agency of a State government, local govern-
ment, or tribal government to provide property, 
products, or services on behalf of the agency under 
the same or similar terms and conditions. 
‘‘(e) DESIGNATION.—The Postal Regulatory Com-
mission shall designate whether property, products, or 
services provided under an agreement described in sub-
section (a) shall be regulated under this title as a market 
dominant product, a competitive product, or an experi-
mental product. 
‘‘(f) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.—Before beginning 
to provide property, products, or services under an agree-
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ment described in subsection (a), the Postal Service shall 
submit to the Postal Regulatory Commission a separate 
report for each agreement entered into under subsection 
(a), analyzing the costs, revenues, rates, and quality of 
the property, products, and services provided under the 
agreement, including information demonstrating that the 
agreement satisfies the requirements of paragraphs (1) 
through (3) of subsection (a). 
‘‘(g) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The Postal Service shall 
issue such regulations as are necessary to carry out 
subsections (a) through (d) of this section. 
‘‘(2) PRC.—The Postal Regulatory Commission 
shall issue such regulations as are necessary to carry 
out subsections (e) and (f) of this section. 
‘‘(h) CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.—Subsections (b) 
and (c) shall not be construed as requiring the Postal 
Service to disclose to the public any information that is— 
‘‘(1) described in section 410(c); or 
‘‘(2) exempt from public disclosure under sec-
tion 552(b) of title 5. 
‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—For the purpose of this sec-
tion— 
‘‘(1) the term ‘local government’ means a coun-
ty, municipality, city, town, township, local public 
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authority, school district, special district, intrastate 
district, council of governments, or regional or inter-
state government entity; 
‘‘(2) the term ‘State government’ includes each 
of the several States, the government of the District 
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 
United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American 
Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands, and any other territory or possession of the 
United States; and 
‘‘(3) the term ‘tribal government’ means the 
government of an Indian tribe, as that term is de-
fined in section 4(e) of the Indian Self-Determina-
tion Act (25 U.S.C. 450b(e)).’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) The table of chapters for part IV of title 39, 
United States Code, is amended by adding after the 
item relating to chapter 36 the following: 
‘‘37. Postal Service program for State, local, and tribal 
governments ............................................................ 3701’’. 
(2) Section 404(e) of title 39, United States 
Code, is amended— 
(A) in paragraph (2), by inserting after 
‘‘subsection,’’ the following: ‘‘or any property, 
products, or services authorized to be provided 
under chapter 37,’’; and 
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(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed to pre-
vent the Postal Service from providing property, products, 
or services that are expressly authorized by chapter 37.’’. 
Æ 
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