II. Background and Need for the Legislation
The federal government‘s provision of mail service dates to the early days of the country‘s history. By the mid-20th century, the U.S. Post Office Department was an extensive federal agency staffed by career federal civil servants. Pressure mounted, however, to transform the nation‘s mail service into a leaner and more self-sufficient entity.
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The modern-day Postal Service was created through the enactment of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.1 That legislation, while retaining the Postal Service as a federal entity, sought to transition the Service to a private-sector model. Whereas the Post Office Department received federal subsidies, the new Postal Service would be fully funded through the rates charged for the products and services it offered to its customers. Postal employees would no longer be part of the regular federal civil service, yet substantial federal involvement and oversight would remain. For instance, tens of thousands of postal employees would remain in the existing federal health