The Senate on Tuesday approved a $107 billion financial overhaul of the long-beleaguered U.S. Postal Service. It now goes to President Biden.

Transcript

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:

The U.S. Postal Service is now likely to see its first big reforms in more than a decade. Last night, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill that aims to save the agency billions of dollars while ensuring that deliveries happen six days a week. Here's Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer yesterday.

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CHUCK SCHUMER: Every day, the Postal Service faithfully delivers for the American people. And today, the Senate is finally delivering for the post office.

MCCAMMON: President Biden is expected to sign the bill in the coming days, and NPR's Deepa Shivaram joins us now with more. Hi, Deepa.

DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hey there.

MCCAMMON: So some major reforms here. What exactly is in this legislation?

SHIVARAM: Yeah, there are three main components to highlight here, and this bill sets up a required six days of service a week and also pushes the USPS to be a little bit more transparent about delivery times. We've seen throughout the pandemic sometimes packages coming in weeks late, right? And so the Postal Service would be required to make an online dashboard to track local and national deliveries. And a huge part of this bill is also that the USPS would no longer prefund health benefits for its employees, which is something that no other federal agency or private company was required to do. And that part of the bill will save USPS billions of dollars.

MCCAMMON: As we know, the Postal Service has been losing money for years, and that's been worsening during the pandemic. How much are these changes expected to save?

SHIVARAM: Yeah, that's right. So over the last two years, USPS has lost over $14 billion, and this is all happening as more and more people are relying heavily on the Postal Service in the pandemic for things like getting their medications, voting by mail, having COVID tests delivered, which has been a recent thing. And right now, this bill is projected to save nearly $50 billion in the next decade. So this is said to be a major boost for this agency to keep its head above water. There are officials who have said that without congressional action, the Postal Service would have run out of cash by 2024.

MCCAMMON: This is happening as Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has issued his own plans to remake the Postal Service in a major way. What is the latest on that?

SHIVARAM: Right. So DeJoy has sparked a lot of controversy in the past. He's a GOP donor and a Trump ally. He set up this 10-year plan for the Postal Service that's gotten some mixed reviews because it would partly cut down on some services. But on this bill, he's called it a vital step, and it puts him in a position to carry out some of the other operational changes to the USPS that he's trying to make. And Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman, who was one of the leaders on this piece of legislation, emphasized the importance of this bill working alongside DeJoy's 10-year plan, and that together, they would ensure, quote, "a self-sustaining, high-quality Postal Service." But with that in mind, there are Democrats who want DeJoy gone and support President Biden nominating two new people to the Postal Service's Board of Governors, which he did in November. And if those two people are confirmed, that could potentially lead to the end of DeJoy's tenure.

MCCAMMON: So multiple efforts underway, but the Postal Service has faced a number of challenges. Are there other reforms being pursued.

SHIVARAM: Right. There are still issues, things like voting by mail, whether postal vehicles will be electric or gas powered, those all still could be addressed. But the goal of this bill was to get as many legislators on board to shore up the USPS' finances. And they passed it last night with clear bipartisan support.

MCCAMMON: We've been talking with NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thank you so much for your time, Deepa.

SHIVARAM: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.