Delivering for America Act

Bill: 116-s-4585
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI]
Introduced: 2020-09-16
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures

Appropriations

Cardiovascular and respiratory health

Elections, voting, political campaign regulation

Emergency medical services and trauma care

Employee hiring

Executive agency funding and structure

Government buildings, facilities, and property

Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management

Government studies and investigations

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Performance measurement

Postal service

State and local government operations

U.S. Postal Service

Wages and earnings
Latest action: action_date: 2020-09-16
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-09-16
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Delivering for America Act</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) from making changes to operations or levels of service from those that were in effect on January 1, 2020, establishes requirements for the processing of election mail, and provides additional funding for the Postal Service Fund.</p> <p> Specifically, the USPS may not, during the period beginning on enactment of this bill and ending on the last day of the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency or January 31, 2021, whichever is later, implement or approve any change to the operations or the level of service that would reduce service performance or impede prompt, reliable, and efficient services. Such changes include the following:</p> <ul> <li>changes in the nature of services that will generally affect service on a nationwide basis;</li> <li>revisions of service standards;</li> <li>closures or consolidations of post offices or facilities or reduction of hours;</li> <li>prohibitions or restrictions on the use of overtime or payment of overtime pay to USPS officers or employees;</li> <li>changes that would prevent the USPS from meeting its service standards or that would reduce measurements of performance concerning those standards;</li> <li>changes that would have the effect of delaying, deferring, or curtailing mail, allowing non-delivery to a delivery route, or increasing the volume of undelivered mail;</li> <li> treating election mail as any class of mail other than first-class mail, regardless of whether this requires overtime pay;</li> <li> any removal or stoppage of mail sorting machines, other than for routine maintenance;</li> <li>removing or eliminating any mail collection box available to the public;</li> <li>enacting any rule, policy, or standard the purpose or effect of which would delay delivery of mail to or from a government entity; and</li> <li>instituting any hiring freeze.</li> </ul> <p>The USPS shall reverse any initiative or action that is causing delay in processing or delivery or non-delivery of mail.</p> <p>With regard to election mail specifically, the bill (1) establishes USPS policy to postmark, with imprinted indicia of the date of receipt, all processed election mail; and (2) directs the USPS to ensure that election mail is processed and cleared from any postal facility on the same day it is received. The term <i>election mail</i> means voter registration materials, absentee and other mail-in applications and ballots, and other materials mailed by state or local election officials to individuals registered to vote in the election.</p> <p>The bill appropriates $25 billion as an additional payment to the Postal Service Fund, of which $15 million shall be transferred to the USPS Office of Inspector General.</p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4585 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 16, 2020 Mr. Peters (for himself, Mr. Carper , and Ms. Klobuchar ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs A BILL To maintain prompt and reliable postal services during the COVID–19 health emergency, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Delivering for America Act . 2. Prompt and reliable postal services during COVID–19 pandemic (a) In general During the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on the last day of the COVID–19 public health emergency or January 31, 2021, whichever is later, the United States Postal Service may not implement or approve any change to the operations or the level of service provided by the Postal Service from those in effect on January 1, 2020, that would reduce service performance or impede prompt, reliable, and efficient services, including any of the following actions: (1) Any change in the nature of postal services which will generally affect service on a nationwide or substantially nationwide basis. (2) Any revision of service standards. (3) Any closure or consolidation of any post office or postal facility, or any reduction of the hours of a post office or postal facility. (4) Any prohibition or restriction on the use of overtime or overtime pay to officers or employees of the Postal Service. (5) Any change that would prevent the Postal Service from meeting its service standards or cause a decline in measurements of performance relative to those service standards. (6) Any change that would have the effect of delaying, deferring, or curtailing mail, allowing for the non-delivery of mail to a delivery route, or increasing the volume of undelivered mail. (7) Treating election mail as any class of mail other than first-class mail, regardless of whether such treatment requires payment of overtime pay to officers or employees of the Postal Service. (8) Removing, decommissioning, or any other stoppage of mail sorting machines, other than for routine maintenance. (9) Removing or eliminating any mail collection box that is available to the public. (10) Enacting any rule, policy, or standard the purpose or effect of which would delay the delivery of mail to or from a government entity. (11) Instituting any hiring freeze. (b) Reversal of policies hindering delivery of mail The United States Postal Service shall reverse any initiative or action that is causing delay in processing or delivery or non-delivery of the mail. (c) Election mail (1) Policy on postmarks It shall be the policy of the United States Postal Service to postmark, which shall include any imprinted indicia from the Postal Service that indicates the date of receipt, all election mail processed by the Postal Service. (2) Same-day processing The United States Postal Service shall ensure, to the maximum extent practical, that election mail is processed and cleared from any postal facility or post office on the same day on which the election mail is received at the postal facility or post office. (d) Definitions In this section— (1) the term COVID–19 public health emergency means the public health emergency declared by the Secretary of Health and Human Services under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act ( 42 U.S.C. 247d ) on January 31, 2020, with respect to COVID–19, including any renewal of that declaration; (2) the term election mail means mail consisting of— (A) voter registration application forms, completed voter registration application forms, and voter registration cards or similar materials; (B) absentee and other mail-in ballot application forms, blank absentee and other mail-in ballots, and completed absentee and other mail-in ballots; and (C) other materials relating to an election which are mailed by a State or local election official to individuals who are registered to vote in the election; and (3) the term government entity means the Federal Government or any State (as that term is defined in section 311 of title 5, United States Code) or local government and any subdivision thereof. 3. Additional appropriation for the Postal Service There is appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2020, for an additional payment to the Postal Service Fund established under section 2003 of title 39, United States Code, $25,000,000,000, to remain available until expended. Of the amount appropriated under the previous sentence, $15,000,000 shall be transferred to United States Postal Service—Office of Inspector General—Salaries and Expenses . 4. Rule of construction Nothing in this Act shall be construed to alter or otherwise effect the terms and conditions of section 3406 of title 39, United States Code (relating to balloting materials under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act). 5. Budgetary effects (a) In general The amounts provided by this Act are designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 ( 2 U.S.C. 933(g) ). (b) Designation in the Senate In the Senate, this Act is designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4112(a) of H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.