Legislative Tactics - Political Strategies

Legislative Tactics – Political Strategies
By Bob Levi
NAPS Director of Legislative & Political Affairs

Seeking a life partner is a long-term strategy for the goal of personal fulfillment. Successful dating, wearing attractive clothing and sharing interests are tactics in pursuit of that strategy and ultimate goal.

NAPS’ annual legislative conference, the Legislative Training Seminar (LTS), and associated Capitol Hill visits with our members of Congress are tactics in achieving a long-term strategy of enhancing the professional success of postal supervisors, managers and postmasters, as well as protecting the well-earned pay and benefits of all executive and administrative schedule (EAS) postal employees.

The LTS will take place shortly. Delegates to this multi-day event will strive to sharpen their legislative skills and absorb a tremendous amount of crucial information that will help NAPS in realizing its goals on behalf of EAS employees and the Postal Service itself.

Partisanship — whether Republican, Democratic or Independent — plays no role in our tactics or strategy. It is noteworthy that, despite all the political fire and brimstone exploding throughout the nation’s capital, postal issues continue to be immune from congressional partisanship.

In large part, postal common ground can be attributable to the members of Congress most intimately immersed in postal issues. At an early February House Committee on Oversight and Accountability meeting, Chair James Comer (R-KY) publicly stated how well postal subcommittee Chair Pete Sessions (R-TX) and ranking Democrat Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) work together.

In fact, Sessions’ and Mfume’s collaboration resulted in the introduction and prompt committee approval of one of NAPS’ 2026 legislative priorities. On Feb. 4, the Oversight and Accountability Committee passed H.R. 7265, the Vote by Mail Tracking Act. NAPS was on hand to thank committee members for their support.

H.R. 7265 would require election ballots mailed in the U.S. to be sent in an envelope bearing a unique barcode that permits the Postal Service to track the ballot through the mail stream. In addition, the legislation authorizes the Postal Service to establish a standard design for election ballot envelopes to include an official election mail logo on the envelope.

This bill could have been commandeered and exploited for partisan purposes, but it was not. The House may vote on H.R. 7265 prior to LTS. From a tactical standpoint, this measure further underscores the importance of the U.S. Postal Service.

Another tactical endeavor is the reintroduction of H.R. 1560, the Postal Supervisors and Managers Fairness Act, with a new bill number. NAPS members who have followed the measure know this legislation would accelerate the pay consultation process and make a fact-finding panel’s conclusions relating to pay and benefits binding, rather than advisory.

The legislation, as originally introduced last year and in previous years, explicitly referenced the “postal supervisors’ organization” as the postmasters’ organization did not support the measure. Nevertheless, the bill, in fact, covered all EAS-level postal employees, including postmasters.

Earlier this year, the UPMA president approached NAPS with the request that the “postmasters’ organization” be explicitly included in the measure and, thus, the organization would advocate for the bill. Consequently, NAPS Executive Vice President Chuck Mulidore reached out to Reps. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) and Mike Bost (R-IL) requesting the congressmen submit a newly numbered bill and revise it to include clear reference to the postmasters’ organization.

As a result, NAPS and UPMA will be able to jointly advocate for the Postal Supervisors, Managers and Postmasters Fairness Act at LTS and the postmasters’ Legislative Summit, respectively. Again, a tactical move to advance a strategic goal to enhance the EAS-level consultative process and outcome.

A perennial legislative activity is scouring the pages of congressional, White House and Postal Service financial documents to identify items that could threaten the job security, livelihood and retirement benefits of supervisors, managers and postmasters. As this issue went to press, President Trump and the congressional budget committees had yet to unveil their fiscal year 2027 budget proposals.

As we successfully resisted proposed benefits cuts last year, NAPS once again will identify and seek to quash legislative devices to reduce retirement benefits, cut pay and undermine EAS-level employee job security. Our tactics will involve alerting congressional allies of the threats and making them accountable for their actions relating to those threats. The strategic goal is safeguarding jobs, benefits and the viability of a universal Postal Service.

Lastly, sober financial news was shared at the Feb. 5 USPS Board of Governors meeting. The USPS reported total first quarter fiscal year 2026 losses totaling $1.3 billion, as compared with a $100 million profit for the same period last year. The USPS, in large part, attributed this meaningful loss to the absence of election mail, which boosts volume and associated revenue in election years.

What is most noteworthy is a 243-million-pieces decline in the “Shipping and Packages” category. This is a component of mail volume the Postal Service needs to grow. Board Chair Amber McReynolds and Postmaster General David Steiner both identified a series of actions that Congress and the White House should take to address the USPS’ financial situation.

Requests include:

1. Eliminating the requirement the USPS invest its trust fund solely in low-return Treasury bills.

2. Recalculating the USPS’ pension liability to reflect that the obligation associated with pre-1971 employees of the Post Office Department be attributed to the Treasury.

3. Revising the USPS workers’ compensation program to reflect private-sector practices.

4. Granting the USPS increased price flexibility.

5. Increasing the USPS’ decades-old debt limit.

These are tactical elements to enable the Postal Service to thrive. There are fundamental questions regarding their political prognosis and how they further the Postal Service’s universal service obligation.

NAPS believes attendance at these prescheduled postal governance meetings is vital in representing EAS-level postal employee interests and demonstrating NAPS’ concern about a wide variety of issues that directly and indirectly impact NAPS members. Our presence also provides NAPS with unique and crucial opportunities to interact with the postal governors, senior USPS Headquarters officers, including the postmaster general and deputy postmaster general, and high-level postal stakeholders.

Participation is not simply a tactic — it is a vehicle in a long-term strategy to advance EAS-level postal employee interests on Capitol Hill and at Postal Headquarters.