I 119THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION H. R. 2098 To require on-time delivery of periodicals to unlock additional rate authority, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH14, 2025 Mr. A DERHOLT(for himself, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. JOHNSONof Georgia, Mr. D AVISof North Carolina, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Ms. TENNEY, Ms. C RAIG, Mr. WILSONof South Carolina, Mr. CARTERof Georgia, Mr. C OLE, Mr. COSTA, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Mr. LAWLER, and Ms. WASSERMAN S CHULTZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com- mittee on Oversight and Government Reform A BILL To require on-time delivery of periodicals to unlock additional rate authority, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Deliver for Democracy 4 Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL RATE AUTHORITY FOR PERIODICALS. 6 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 7 of this Act, the Postal Regulatory Commission shall 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:22 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2098.IH H2098 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 2098 IH amend section 3030.222 of title 39, Code of Federal Regu-1 lations, to provide that, for any fiscal year ending after 2 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 3 not authorize the United States Postal Service any addi-4 tional rate authority with respect to periodicals under that 5 section for the following fiscal year, unless the Commission 6 determines that the United States Postal Service 7 achieved— 8 (1) a 95 percent on-time delivery performance 9 for periodicals during the fiscal year of the deter-10 mination, as measured by the service standards in 11 effect on the date of enactment of this Act; or 12 (2) an increase in the on-time delivery perform-13 ance for periodicals during the fiscal year of the de-14 termination, as measured by the service standards in 15 effect on the date of enactment of this Act, of not 16 less than 2 percentage points, as compared to the 17 on-time delivery performance percentage in the fiscal 18 year before, on, or after the date of enactment of 19 this Act in which the on-time delivery performance 20 percentage is the highest measured, as measured by 21 such service standards. 22 SEC. 3. ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT. 23 (a) R EPORTREQUIRED.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:22 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2098.IH H2098 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 2098 IH (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsections (c) 1 and (d), the Postmaster General shall submit to the 2 Postal Regulatory Commission and make publicly 3 available an annual report on the progress of the 4 United States Postal Service in including in the peri-5 odical service performance measurements of the 6 Postal Service on-time performance data for in-coun-7 ty and out-of-county newspaper mail that is entered 8 and accepted at each delivery unit for delivery. 9 (2) S TAKEHOLDER INPUT .—In carrying out the 10 report requirement under paragraph (1), the Post-11 master General shall solicit feedback from relevant 12 stakeholders. 13 (b) I MPLEMENTATION OF REPORTREQUIREMENT.— 14 If the relevant information is not available for each indi-15 vidually addressed piece of mail for purposes of a report 16 required under subsection (a), the Postal Regulatory Com-17 mission, in consultation with the Postmaster General, 18 shall develop a system for generating service performance 19 data for use in the report by producing digital information 20 for relevant mail bundles. 21 (c) T ERMINATION OFREPORTREQUIREMENT.—The 22 Postmaster General shall submit and make publicly avail-23 able the report described in subsection (a) annually until 24 the date on which the Postal Regulatory Commission de-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:22 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2098.IH H2098 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 2098 IH termines that the United States Postal Service has incor-1 porated the categories of mail described in subsection (a), 2 or any other relevant mail categories used in the report 3 in accordance with subsection (d), into the existing appli-4 cable service performance measurements. 5 (d) P ROXYINFORMATION.— 6 (1) I N GENERAL.—If the Postal Regulatory 7 Commission and the Postmaster General jointly de-8 termine that identifying newspaper mail within the 9 periodicals mail category is not practicable for pur-10 poses of a report under subsection (a), the Postal 11 Regulatory Commission may determine what infor-12 mation with respect to the closest relevant mail cat-13 egory the Postmaster General may use in the report. 14 (2) P UBLIC REPORT ON DETERMINATION .—If 15 the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Post-16 master General make the determination described in 17 paragraph (1), the Postal Regulatory Commission 18 and the Postmaster General shall make publicly 19 available a report describing the process and ration-20 ale for the determination, including a description 21 of— 22 (A) the potential costs for the United 23 States Postal Service and applicable businesses 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:22 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2098.IH H2098 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 2098 IH resulting from the report requirement under 1 subsection (a); 2 (B) the ability of the Postmaster General 3 to ascertain accurate results for inclusion in the 4 report under subsection (a); and 5 (C) any other factor contributing to the 6 determination. 7 SEC. 4. GAO STUDY AND REPORT. 8 (a) S TUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 9 States shall conduct a study of alternative pricing schemes 10 and other options for the United States Postal Service 11 that would improve the financial position of periodicals 12 and other products that do not cover their costs and evalu-13 ate the potential impact of such alternative pricing 14 schemes and other options. 15 (b) R EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 16 of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 17 United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland 18 Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 19 Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the House 20 of Representatives a report on the study conducted under 21 subsection (a). 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:22 Mar 27, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2098.IH H2098 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB