(April 17, 2012) The United States Senate today resumed its consideration of a bill to address a host of matters related to the operations, finances, and workforce of the USPS. Senate Bill 1789, which was originally introduced in the Senate on November 2, 2011 (see the NPMHU news release from November 2nd), has now been modified with a series of “Managers’ Amendments” which have been developed and agreed to by the four Senators who introduced the original legislation. This group is comprised of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the Ranking Member of that Committee, Susan Collins (R-ME), Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE), and Subcommittee Ranking Member Scott Brown (R-MA). By a vote of 74-22, the full Senate voted today to invoke cloture on the modified bill, which essentially allows the bill to now be fully debated, and possibly further amended, by the full Senate in the coming days.

The NPMHU leadership and legislative department will continue to dissect and analyze the modified version of S. 1789, which was only released to the public late last night, and will continue to lobby members of the Senate to further refine the legislation in our efforts to promote the provisions that serve the best interests of the NPMHU membership, and to oppose those provisions which might negatively affect both our short and long term interests.

The House of Representatives also is expected to move forward soon with USPS legislation.

Events related to postal legislation are expected to move quickly during the coming days. Please stay tuned to the NPMHU website for additional details on these important legislative initiatives.