To authorize the United States Postal Service to provide certain nonpostal property, products, and services on behalf of State, local, and tribal governments.

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- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. POSTAL SERVICE PROGRAM FOR STATE, 3 LOCAL, AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS. 4 (a) POSTAL SERVICE PROGRAM FOR STATE, LOCAL, 5 AND TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS.—Part IV of title 39, United 6 States Code, is amended by adding after chapter 36 the 7 following: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 3577 IH ‘‘CHAPTER 37—POSTAL SERVICE PRO- 1 GRAM FOR STATE, LOCAL, AND TRIB- 2 AL GOVERNMENTS 3 ‘‘Sec. ‘‘3701. Purpose. ‘‘3702. Definitions. ‘‘3703. Postal Service program for State, local, and tribal governments. ‘‘§ 3701. Purpose 4 ‘‘The purpose of this chapter is to enable the Postal 5 Service to increase its net revenues through providing spe- 6 cific nonpostal property, products, and services that are 7 expressly authorized by this chapter. Postal Service reve- 8 nues and expenses under this chapter shall be funded 9 through the Postal Service Fund. 10 ‘‘§ 3702. Definitions 11 ‘‘In this chapter— 12 ‘‘(1) the term ‘costs attributable’ has the mean- 13 ing given such term in section 3631; and 14 ‘‘(2) the term ‘year’ means a fiscal year. 15 ‘‘§ 3703. Postal Service program for State, local, and 16 tribal governments 17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (d), and 18 notwithstanding any other provision of this title, the Post- 19 al Service may establish a program under which the Postal 20 Service may enter into an agreement with an agency of 21 a State government, local government, or tribal govern- 22 ment to provide property, products, or services on behalf 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 3577 IH of the agency, if providing the property, products, or serv- 1 ices— 2 ‘‘(1) provides enhanced value to the public, such 3 as by lowering the cost or raising the quality of the 4 property, products, or services or by making the 5 property, products, or services more accessible; 6 ‘‘(2) does not interfere with or detract from the 7 value of postal services, including— 8 ‘‘(A) with respect to the cost and efficiency 9 of postal services; and 10 ‘‘(B) that providing the property, products, 11 or services will not unreasonably restrict access 12 to postal retail service, such as through in- 13 creased customer waiting time or reduced ac- 14 cess to parking; and 15 ‘‘(3) will provide a reasonable contribution to 16 the institutional costs of the Postal Service, which 17 shall include reimbursement that covers not less 18 than 100 percent of the costs attributable to pro- 19 viding the property, products, and services under the 20 agreement in each year. 21 ‘‘(b) PUBLIC NOTICE.—Not later than 90 days before 22 beginning to provide property, products, or services under 23 an agreement described in subsection (a), the Postal Serv- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 3577 IH ice shall make available to the public on the website of 1 the Postal Service— 2 ‘‘(1) the agreement with the agency regarding 3 providing the property, products, or services; and 4 ‘‘(2) a business plan that describes— 5 ‘‘(A) the specific property, products, and 6 services to be provided; 7 ‘‘(B) the enhanced value to the public; 8 ‘‘(C) the terms of reimbursement; 9 ‘‘(D) the estimated annual reimbursement 10 to the Postal Service; and 11 ‘‘(E) the estimated percentage of the costs 12 attributable to providing the property, products, 13 and services that will be covered by reimburse- 14 ment (with documentation to support the esti- 15 mates). 16 ‘‘(c) PUBLIC COMMENT.— 17 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Before beginning to provide 18 property, products, or services under an agreement 19 described in subsection (a), the Postal Service shall 20 provide for a public comment period of not less than 21 30 days, during which the public may post com- 22 ments relating to the provision of the property, prod- 23 ucts, or services on the website of the Postal Service. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 3577 IH ‘‘(2) RESPONSE.—The Postal Service shall 1 make reasonable efforts to provide written responses 2 to the comments described in paragraph (1) on the 3 website of the Postal Service not later than 30 days 4 before beginning to provide the property, products, 5 or services. 6 ‘‘(d) APPROVAL REQUIRED.—The Postal Service may 7 not enter into an agreement under subsection (a) unless 8 a majority of the Board of Governors of the Postal Service 9 approve, by a recorded vote that is publicly disclosed on 10 the website of the Postal Service— 11 ‘‘(1) the agreement; or 12 ‘‘(2) an agreement under subsection (a) with 13 another agency of a State government, local govern- 14 ment, or tribal government to provide property, 15 products, or services on behalf of the agency under 16 the same or similar terms and conditions. 17 ‘‘(e) DESIGNATION.—The Postal Regulatory Com- 18 mission shall designate whether property, products, or 19 services provided under an agreement described in sub- 20 section (a) shall be regulated under this title as a market 21 dominant product, a competitive product, or an experi- 22 mental product. 23 ‘‘(f) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.—Before beginning 24 to provide property, products, or services under an agree- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 3577 IH ment described in subsection (a), the Postal Service shall 1 submit to the Postal Regulatory Commission a separate 2 report for each agreement entered into under subsection 3 (a), analyzing the costs, revenues, rates, and quality of 4 the property, products, and services provided under the 5 agreement, including information demonstrating that the 6 agreement satisfies the requirements of paragraphs (1) 7 through (3) of subsection (a). 8 ‘‘(g) REGULATIONS REQUIRED.— 9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Postal Service shall 10 issue such regulations as are necessary to carry out 11 subsections (a) through (d) of this section. 12 ‘‘(2) PRC.—The Postal Regulatory Commission 13 shall issue such regulations as are necessary to carry 14 out subsections (e) and (f) of this section. 15 ‘‘(h) CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.—Subsections (b) 16 and (c) shall not be construed as requiring the Postal 17 Service to disclose to the public any information that is— 18 ‘‘(1) described in section 410(c); or 19 ‘‘(2) exempt from public disclosure under sec- 20 tion 552(b) of title 5. 21 ‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—For the purpose of this sec- 22 tion— 23 ‘‘(1) the term ‘local government’ means a coun- 24 ty, municipality, city, town, township, local public 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 3577 IH authority, school district, special district, intrastate 1 district, council of governments, or regional or inter- 2 state government entity; 3 ‘‘(2) the term ‘State government’ includes each 4 of the several States, the government of the District 5 of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 6 United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American 7 Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 8 Islands, and any other territory or possession of the 9 United States; and 10 ‘‘(3) the term ‘tribal government’ means the 11 government of an Indian tribe, as that term is de- 12 fined in section 4(e) of the Indian Self-Determina- 13 tion Act (25 U.S.C. 450b(e)).’’. 14 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 15 (1) The table of chapters for part IV of title 39, 16 United States Code, is amended by adding after the 17 item relating to chapter 36 the following: 18 ‘‘37. Postal Service program for State, local, and tribal governments ............................................................ 3701’’. (2) Section 404(e) of title 39, United States 19 Code, is amended— 20 (A) in paragraph (2), by inserting after 21 ‘‘subsection,’’ the following: ‘‘or any property, 22 products, or services authorized to be provided 23 under chapter 37,’’; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 3577 IH (B) by adding at the end the following: 1 ‘‘(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed to pre- 2 vent the Postal Service from providing property, products, 3 or services that are expressly authorized by chapter 37.’’. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:56 Jul 09, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3577.IH H3577 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS