To amend title 39, United States Code, to modernize the Postal Service regulations, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill creates caps annual postal rate increases at CPI minus 0.5% (or a Commission-specified alternative for one year), limiting USPS ability to raise prices above inflation. The Postal Regulatory Commission must issue, establishes a new section 3693 authorizing the Postal Regulatory Commission to sanction the Postal Service for persistent service failures by reducing its rate increase authority, and requires details the mechanics of the new Section 3693 sanctions: the Commission may reduce USPS rate increase authority for market-dominant products affected by covered service failures. It relies on compliance mandates, price controls, definition changes, and reporting requirements. The main policy areas are Postal Services, Transportation, Finance, and Trade.
Who Benefits and How
General public and postal customers could face reduced risk, Professional asset management firms could gain revenue opportunities, and Postal customers who paid unlawful rates could see lower costs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
U.S. Postal Service would take on compliance duties, Postal Regulatory Commission would take on compliance duties, and Treasury Department would take on compliance duties.
Key Provisions
- Creates caps annual postal rate increases at CPI minus 0.5% (or a Commission-specified alternative for one year), limiting USPS ability to raise prices above inflation. The Postal Regulatory Commission must issue...
- Establishes a new section 3693 authorizing the Postal Regulatory Commission to sanction the Postal Service for persistent service failures by reducing its rate increase authority.
- Requires details the mechanics of the new Section 3693 sanctions: the Commission may reduce USPS rate increase authority for market-dominant products affected by covered service failures.
- Requires strengthens oversight of USPS service changes by requiring Commission 'decisions' (not just advisory opinions) and empowering the Commission to order USPS to justify plans that appear to require but don't...
- Limits USPS to one rate increase per year by prohibiting rate changes more frequently than once every 12 months, providing greater price predictability for mailers.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill creates caps annual postal rate increases at CPI minus 0.5% (or a Commission-specified alternative for one year), limiting USPS ability to raise prices above inflation. The Postal Regulatory Commission must issue, establishes a new section 3693 authorizing the Postal Regulatory Commission to sanction the Postal Service for persistent service failures by reducing its rate increase authority, and requires details the mechanics of the new Section 3693 sanctions: the Commission may reduce USPS rate increase authority for market-dominant products affected by covered service failures.
Key Policy Areas
Postal Services, Transportation, Finance, Trade
Primary Purpose
The bill creates caps annual postal rate increases at CPI minus 0.5% (or a Commission-specified alternative for one year), limiting USPS ability to raise prices above inflation. The Postal Regulatory Commission must issue, establishes a new section 3693 authorizing the Postal Regulatory Commission to sanction the Postal Service for persistent service failures by reducing its rate increase authority, and requires details the mechanics of the new Section 3693 sanctions: the Commission may reduce USPS rate increase authority for market-dominant products affected by covered service failures.
Policy Domains
Rate Regulation and Cost Efficiency (Sections 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12)
Identified Gains
- General public and postal customers
- Professional asset management firms
- Postal customers who paid unlawful rates
- Business mailers (direct mail, catalogs, periodicals)
- Users of unprofitable mail classes (periodicals, nonprofits)
Identified Costs
- U.S. Postal Service
- Postal Regulatory Commission
- Treasury Department
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Graves introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
U.S. Postal Service, USPS retirees and employees
Positive-direction: USPS retirees and employees
Negative-direction: U.S. Postal Service
Communities served by USPS facilities, General public and postal customers, Postal customers (market-dominant mail users)
Postal Regulatory Commission, Treasury Department
Business mailers (direct mail, catalogs, periodicals), Business mailers and shippers
Publishers and periodical mailers, Users of unprofitable mail classes (periodicals, nonprofits)
Educational and nonprofit mailers, Nonprofit organizations using mail
Economic consultants and research firms, Independent auditors
Small businesses relying on timely mail delivery
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_commission"
- → Postal Regulatory Commission
- "the_postal_service"
- → United States Postal Service
- "the_governors"
- → Governors of the Postal Service
- "the_commission"
- → Postal Regulatory Commission
- "the_postal_service"
- → United States Postal Service
- "the_office"
- → Office of the Customer Advocate
- "the_commission"
- → Postal Regulatory Commission
- "the_commission"
- → Postal Regulatory Commission
- "the_committee"
- → Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund Investment Committee
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of the Treasury
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A failure to meet a service target established under section 3692 that: (1) is not caused by natural disaster or external disruptive event, (2) has persisted for at least one year, and (3) lacks a credible remediation plan.
25 percent of the currently available portions of the Fund not immediately required for payments, which may be increased to 30 percent after 5 years.
A class of mail for which the attributable costs of the Postal Service exceed revenues attributable to such class.
Has the meaning given in section 8438(a) of title 5, U.S. Code (relating to Thrift Savings Fund management).
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology