Title: To authorize the United States Postal Service to provide certain nonpostal property, products, and services on behalf of State, local, and tribal governments.
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
This bill authorizes the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to establish a program under which it may enter an agreement with an agency of a state, local, or tribal government to provide property, products, or services on behalf of the agency.
The bill permits the USPS to do so if the program (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 them more accessible; (2) does not interfere with or detract from the value of postal services; and (3) will provide a reasonable contribution to the USPS's institutional costs.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3577 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 behalf of State, local, 
                        and tribal governments.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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:

   ``CHAPTER 37--POSTAL SERVICE PROGRAM FOR STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIBAL 
                              GOVERNMENTS

``Sec.
``3701. Purpose.
``3702. Definitions.
``3703. Postal Service program for State, local, and tribal 
                            governments.
``Sec. 3701. Purpose
    ``The purpose of this chapter is to enable the Postal Service to 
increase its net revenues through providing specific nonpostal 
property, products, and services that are expressly authorized by this 
chapter. Postal Service revenues and expenses under this chapter shall 
be funded through the Postal Service Fund.
``Sec. 3702. Definitions
    ``In this chapter--
            ``(1) the term `costs attributable' has the meaning given 
        such term in section 3631; and
            ``(2) the term `year' means a fiscal year.
``Sec. 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 Postal 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 government 
to provide property, products, or services on behalf of the agency, if 
providing the property, products, or services--
            ``(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 increased 
                customer waiting time or reduced access 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 providing 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 Service shall make available to the public 
on the website of the Postal Service--
            ``(1) the agreement with the agency regarding providing the 
        property, products, or services; and
            ``(2) a business plan that describes--
                    ``(A) the specific property, products, and services 
                to be provided;
                    ``(B) the enhanced value to the public;
                    ``(C) the terms of reimbursement;
                    ``(D) the estimated annual reimbursement to the 
                Postal Service; and
                    ``(E) the estimated percentage of the costs 
                attributable to providing the property, products, and 
                services that will be covered by reimbursement (with 
                documentation to support the estimates).
    ``(c) Public Comment.--
            ``(1) In general.--Before beginning to provide property, 
        products, or services under an agreement described in 
        subsection (a), the Postal Service shall provide for a public 
        comment period of not less than 30 days, during which the 
        public may post comments relating to the provision of the 
        property, products, or services on the website of the Postal 
        Service.
            ``(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 government, 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 Commission shall 
designate whether property, products, or services provided under an 
agreement described in subsection (a) shall be regulated under this 
title as a market dominant product, a competitive product, or an 
experimental product.
    ``(f) Reporting Requirements.--Before beginning to provide 
property, products, or services under an agreement 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 section 552(b) of 
        title 5.
    ``(i) Definitions.--For the purpose of this section--
            ``(1) the term `local government' means a county, 
        municipality, city, town, township, local public authority, 
        school district, special district, intrastate district, council 
        of governments, or regional or interstate 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 defined in section 4(e) of the 
        Indian Self-Determination 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       3701''.
                            governments.
            (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
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the 
Postal Service from providing property, products, or services that are 
expressly authorized by chapter 37.''.
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