[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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