II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1002
To require on-time delivery of periodicals to unlock additional rate authority,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH12, 2025
Mr. W
ELCH(for himself, Mr. ROUNDS, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr.
W
YDEN, Mr. MERKLEY, Ms. SMITH, Mr. SANDERS, and Ms. BALDWIN)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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
amend section 3030.222 of title 39, Code of Federal Regu-9
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•S 1002 IS
lations, to provide that, for any fiscal year ending after 1
the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 2
not authorize the United States Postal Service any addi-3
tional rate authority with respect to periodicals under that 4
section for the following fiscal year, unless the Commission 5
determines that the United States Postal Service 6
achieved— 7
(1) a 95 percent on-time delivery performance 8
for periodicals during the fiscal year of the deter-9
mination, as measured by the service standards in 10
effect on the date of enactment of this Act; or 11
(2) an increase in the on-time delivery perform-12
ance for periodicals during the fiscal year of the de-13
termination, as measured by the service standards in 14
effect on the date of enactment of this Act, of not 15
less than 2 percentage points, as compared to the 16
on-time delivery performance percentage in the fiscal 17
year before, on, or after the date of enactment of 18
this Act in which the on-time delivery performance 19
percentage is the highest measured, as measured by 20
such service standards. 21
SEC. 3. ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT. 22
(a) R
EPORTREQUIRED.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to subsections (c) 24
and (d), the Postmaster General shall submit to the 25
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Postal Regulatory Commission and make publicly 1
available an annual report on the progress of the 2
United States Postal Service in including in the peri-3
odical service performance measurements of the 4
Postal Service on-time performance data for in-coun-5
ty and out-of-county newspaper mail that is entered 6
and accepted at each delivery unit for delivery. 7
(2) S
TAKEHOLDER INPUT .—In carrying out the 8
report requirement under paragraph (1), the Post-9
master General shall solicit feedback from relevant 10
stakeholders. 11
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION OF REPORTREQUIREMENT.— 12
If the relevant information is not available for each indi-13
vidually-addressed piece of mail for purposes of a report 14
required under subsection (a), the Postal Regulatory Com-15
mission, in consultation with the Postmaster General, 16
shall develop a system for generating service performance 17
data for use in the report by producing digital information 18
for relevant mail bundles. 19
(c) T
ERMINATION OFREPORTREQUIREMENT.—The 20
Postmaster General shall submit and make publicly avail-21
able the report described in subsection (a) annually until 22
the date on which the Postal Regulatory Commission de-23
termines that the United States Postal Service has incor-24
porated the categories of mail described in subsection (a), 25
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or any other relevant mail categories used in the report 1
in accordance with subsection (d), into the existing appli-2
cable service performance measurements. 3
(d) P
ROXYINFORMATION.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Postal Regulatory 5
Commission and the Postmaster General jointly de-6
termine that identifying newspaper mail within the 7
periodicals mail category is not practicable for pur-8
poses of a report under subsection (a), the Postal 9
Regulatory Commission may determine what infor-10
mation with respect to the closest relevant mail cat-11
egory the Postmaster General may use in the report. 12
(2) P
UBLIC REPORT ON DETERMINATION .—If 13
the Postal Regulatory Commission and the Post-14
master General make the determination described in 15
paragraph (1), the Postal Regulatory Commission 16
and the Postmaster General shall make publicly 17
available a report describing the process and ration-18
ale for the determination, including a description 19
of— 20
(A) the potential costs for the United 21
States Postal Service and applicable businesses 22
resulting from the report requirement under 23
subsection (a); 24
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(B) the ability of the Postmaster General 1
to ascertain accurate results for inclusion in the 2
report under subsection (a); and 3
(C) any other factor contributing to the 4
determination. 5
SEC. 4. GAO STUDY AND REPORT. 6
(a) S
TUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 7
States shall conduct a study of alternative pricing schemes 8
and other options for the United States Postal Service 9
that would improve the financial position of periodicals 10
and other products that do not cover their costs and evalu-11
ate the potential impact of such alternative pricing 12
schemes and other options. 13
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 14
of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 15
United States shall submit to the Committee on Homeland 16
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 17
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the 18
House of Representatives a report on the study conducted 19
under subsection (a). 20
Æ
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