The U.S. House of Representatives has approved overwhelmingly a financial aid package for the U.S. Postal Service, worth about $50 billion. The measure passed 342 to 92. A similar bill in the Senate is expected to pass, too, with bipartisan support. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hopes to have a vote by February 18th. [We will update this page when that occurs.]

The Senate version has 27 cosponsors, 14 of them Republicans.

One of the bills’ key provisions is to require future USPS retirees to enroll in a government health insurance plan (Medicare) and removes a mandate that the agency cover its future health care costs decades in advance, a requirement no business or other federal entity faces. The USPS has claimed that the tens of billions of dollars in these liabilities prevented it from modernizing and improving service.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy [right]had made the legislation the centerpiece of his 10-year postal restructuring plan. The White House and postal unions supported the bill as did the Greeting Card Association, Hallmark and Amazon.com.

On the same day the legislation passed, the USPS reported an adjusted loss of approximately $1.3 billion for the quarter, compared to an adjusted loss of $288 million for the same quarter last year.

House Liberals had pushed for a broader bill that would have included protecting mail-in voting, funding for electric vehicles and restrictions on political activities by the Postmaster General and members of the Board of Governors. DeJoy has raised funds for former President Trump and oher Republicans. The Governors are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), the bill’s sponsor and chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told The Washington Post, said the more narrow bill was a compromise. “We could have passed a bill with just Democratic votes, but it would have been dead in the Senate.”

Republicans say DeJoy has a clear path to reforming postal operations.

“Congress just doesn’t want to put a Band-Aid on the post office,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, told The Post. “We want to try to have a permanent solution to the post office, and that all predicates on having a reform plan.

This article was drawn from a number of sources, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Reuters and the USPS.