Article I, Section 8, clause 7 of the Constitution grants Congress power to establish post offices and post roads. Pursuant to this power, Congress enacted the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, which created the United States Postal Service as an independent establishment in the executive branch of the U.S. government. It enacted this statute to permit the Postal Service to operate more like a business than a government entity. Before the 1970 act became law, the Cabinet-level Department of the Post Office operated postal services. While Congress applied to the Postal Service some statutes, including those relating to veterans' preference and retirement, that apply to federal entities and prohibited postal employees, like other federal employees, from striking, it provided in Section 1209(a) of Title 39 of the United States Code that, "Employee-management relations shall, to the extent not inconsistent with the provisions of this title, be subject to the provisions of subchapter II of chapter 7 of Title 29." This language cites the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which governs private sector employee-management relations. These relations in most federal departments and agencies are regulated by chapter 71 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code, known as the Federal Labor-Management Relations Statute. Congress in the 1970 act, codified at Title 39 of the U.S. Code, also granted the U.S. Postal Service broader employee-management authority than exercised by most other federal departments and agencies. A provision of the act, 39 U.S.C. Section 1005(f), identifies subjects of Postal Service collective bargaining: compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. This scope differs from the one that applies to most federal agencies, which is limited to conditions of employment. For those agencies, the phrase "conditions of employment" is defined in 5 U.S.C. Section 7103 expressly to exclude policies, practices, and matters relating to political activities prohibited under subchapter III of chapter 73 of Title 5 (i.e., the Hatch Act); classification of any position; and, significantly, conditions of employment that are specifically provided for in federal statute. This final exclusion precludes collective bargaining over conditions of employment such as Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) because they are specifically provided for in 5 U.S.C. chapters 87 and 89, respectively. Addressing the transition from the Postal Office Department to the businesslike U.S. Postal Service, Congress in 39 U.S.C. Section 1005(f) indicated that compensation, fringe benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment that were in effect immediately prior to the effective date of the section (i.e., July 1, 1971) would continue to apply to officers and employees of the Postal Service in accordance with chapters 10 and 12 of Title 39, which relate to employment and employee-management relations, respectively. The final sentence of Section 1005(f) states the following: No variation, addition, or substitution with respect to fringe benefits shall result in a program of fringe benefits which on the whole is less favorable to the officers and employees in effect on the effective date of this section, and as to officers and employees for whom there is a collective-bargaining representative, no such variation, addition, or substitution shall be made except by agreement between the collective bargaining representative and the Postal Service. Congress provided procedures for terminating collective bargaining agreements in Section 1207 of Title 39. This section states that a party wishing to terminate or modify an agreement while it is in effect must serve timely written notice on the other party. If parties cannot agree on a resolution or adopt a procedure for a binding resolution of a dispute, the Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service must appoint a mediator. This section also grants authority to establish an arbitration board under certain circumstances and provides that a board decision is conclusive and binding on the parties. Collective bargaining agreements are contracts between the Postal Service and unions that prescribe employee-management relations on subjects that Congress has permitted to be collectively bargained. Can Congress through legislation modify the scope of bargaining or terms of collective bargaining agreements? Congress has authority prospectively to modify the scope of bargaining or terms of collective bargaining agreements after they expire. In the 1970 act, Congress granted the Postal Service and collective-bargaining representatives authority to bargain collectively over compensation, fringe benefits such as health insurance and life insurance, and other conditions of employment, but it could amend that statute to limit the scope of bargaining subjects in the future. For example, Congress could mandate that rates of employee premiums for health or life insurance no longer will be subjects of collective bargaining. Enacting a statute to modify the scope of bargaining or terms of agreements before they expire, however, may present legal questions to be resolved by a court. For example, a court may have to determine whether such a statute may cause the Postal Service to breach a contract or exceed constitutional limits under the Takings and/or Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment. Some sections of Title III "Postal Service Workforce" as reported favorably to the full House by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on October 13, 2011, would directly modify some provisions of Title 39 of the U.S. Code that relate to Postal Service collective bargaining agreements and employee-management relations. Many of these sections appear to have been based on recommendations of the President's Commission on the United States Postal Service issued in 2003. Section 301(a), "Modifications Relating to Pay Comparability," of H.R. 2309 would amend the first sentence of 39 U.S.C. Section 101(c), which states that, "As an employer, the Postal Service shall achieve and maintain compensation for its officers and employees comparable to the rates and types of compensation paid in the private sector of the economy of the United States." This subsection would insert "total" before "rates and types of compensation" and insert "entire" before "private sector." Section 301(b) would make a corresponding change to the second sentence of 39 U.S.C. §1003(a), which provides that, "It shall be the policy of the Postal Service to maintain compensation and benefits for all officers and employees on a standard of comparability to the compensation and benefits paid for comparable levels of work in the private sector of the economy." "Total" would be inserted before "compensation and benefits" each place it appears and "entire" would be inserted before "private sector." Section 301(c) would provide that for purposes of amendments made by Section 301, any determination of total rates and types of compensation or total compensation and benefits "... shall, at a minimum, take into account pay, health benefits, retirement benefits, life insurance benefits, leave, holidays, and continuity and stability of employment." The President's Commission Report explained that amendments to this effect would clarify that the 1970 act's commitment to comparability with the private sector should apply to total compensation packages that are available to Postal Service officers and employees and should take into account the value of federal benefits such as cost of living increases in retirement that may not be widely available to private sector workers. Section 302 of H.R. 2309 , "Limitations under FEGLI and FEHBP," would amend 39 U.S.C. Section 1003 by adding at the end a new subsection (e) to provide that Postal Service employer contributions for government life insurance and health insurance benefit programs shall be the same as those for government departments and agencies. This amendment would take effect for each fiscal year after September 30, 2013, the end of FY2013. For employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, however, this change would not take effect for any fiscal year until after these agreements expire, including any portion that remains of a fiscal year if those agreements expire before the end of a fiscal year. Section 8707(c)(2) of Title 5 of the U.S. Code provides that 66.66% of premium costs shall be withheld for employees who participate in the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) program. Section 8708(a) states that the government agency contribution is one-half of the share paid by employees. According to the committee report, Postal Service employees currently pay nothing for life insurance premiums compared to over 66% that other federal employees pay. Because employees pay nothing for these premiums, the Postal Service as the employing agency pays 100% of them. Section 8906(b)(1) of Title 5 provides that the biweekly government contribution rate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) for most federal employees can be adjusted to 72% of the Office of Personnel Management-determined weighted average of subscription charges for individual only and for individual and family health insurance coverage. Under current law, bargaining representatives can and have negotiated higher Postal Service employer contributions for employees that have resulted in lower employee contributions. The committee report observes that postal employees currently pay 21% of health care premiums compared to 28% that other federal employees pay. As a consequence of these agreement terms, the Postal Service as the employing agency pays an average of 79% of health insurance premiums for its employees. Section 303 of H.R. 2309 , "Repeal of Provision Relating to Overall Value of Fringe Benefits," would repeal the last sentence of 39 U.S. Section 1005(f), which constrains the ability of the Postal Service to modify fringe benefits. As noted above, this subsection states that compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment that were in effect before the effective date of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, July 1, 1971, shall continue to apply to Postal Service officers and employees unless changed by the Postal Service in accordance with chapters 10 and 12 of Title 39 of the U.S. Code. The final sentence of Section 1005(f) that would be repealed by Section 303 of H.R.