Cville Right Now: Spanberger co-sponsors legislation for more responsible USPS delivery of rural newspapers

CVILLE RIGHT NOW, JAY HART

 U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger has helped introduce bipartisan, bicameral legislation to support rural newspaper delivery by incentivizing on-time U.S. Postal Service delivery and limiting excessive rate increases for periodicals. Spanberger says the Postal Service has consistently raised rates for periodicals under the guise of increased efficiency and improved service, approving In January 2021 an additional two percentage points of rate authority for any class or product of mail where costs exceed revenue. Since then, she says USPS has maximally exercised this authority, raising periodical postage rates by more than 40 percent in three and a half years. Even with these significant postal rate increases, USPS continues to fail to achieve the 95 percent on-time delivery performance standard outlined in Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year plan.

The Deliver for Democracy Act would hold the U.S. Postal Service accountable for on-time newspaper delivery service and incentivize reliable postal service. Additionally, the bipartisan legislation would limit excessive rate increases for periodicals — blocking USPS’s authority to raise rates unless delivery and service standards are met.

The Spanberger release says specifically, the Deliver for Democracy Act would:

• Require USPS to either (1) achieve at least a 95 percent on-time delivery rate for periodicals (as highlighted in their own plan) or (2) achieve an improvement of at least 2 percentage points. If they do not, then USPS may not use its 2 percent surcharge authority to increase rates for that class of mail.

• Require USPS to annually report to the PRC on its progress including on-time delivery data for newspapers in its periodical service performance measurement; and

• Instruct the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and submit a report to Congress on options for alternate USPS pricing schemes to improve the cost margins with periodicals.

The Deliver for Democracy Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by U.S. Representatives Robert Aderholt (R-AL-04) and Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO-05) and in the U.S. Senate by Senators Peter Welch (D-VT) and Mike Rounds (R-SD).