New Mail Bill Ties USPS Rate Hikes to 95% On-Time Delivery for Periodicals

The “Deliver for Democracy Act” is basically telling the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), “No performance, no raise.” This bill ties the USPS’s ability to hike rates for magazines and newspapers (periodicals) directly to its delivery performance. Specifically, for the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to approve an extra rate increase for periodicals next year, the USPS must hit one of two targets this year: either achieve 95% on-time delivery for periodicals, or show a significant improvement of at least 2 percentage points over their best past performance (Sec. 2).

This is a big deal for anyone who subscribes to a magazine or relies on local newspapers. If the USPS wants to charge publishers more—and those costs inevitably trickle down to subscribers or affect publication viability—they now have to earn it by delivering the goods on time. It’s a classic carrot-and-stick approach: improve service, or miss out on extra revenue authority.

The Cost of Slow Mail: Who Pays?

This bill directly impacts the publishers who rely on the mail service, which includes everything from national magazines to local weekly newspapers. For these businesses, the cost of postage is a massive operational expense. If the USPS fails to meet the 95% target or show improvement, they lose the authority for an extra rate increase. That sounds like a win for publishers, but it also creates uncertainty.

Here’s the catch: the USPS is under pressure to become more financially stable. If they can’t raise rates because they can’t meet the performance targets, that financial strain doesn't just disappear. While the bill aims to incentivize better service, the operational challenge of hitting 95% on-time delivery for periodicals—especially in rural areas—is significant. The USPS will have to prioritize this mail class, which could potentially impact the handling of other mail types, like your Amazon packages or utility bills.

Peeking Behind the Curtain: Mandatory Data Transparency

Beyond setting performance hurdles, the Act demands more transparency. The Postmaster General must now issue an annual public report detailing the on-time performance specifically for newspapers sent via periodical service, broken down by whether the mail stays within the county or goes out of the county (Sec. 3). This is important because newspapers often have very tight delivery windows.

What’s clever here is the acknowledgement that getting exact data on every single piece of mail can be difficult. So, the bill allows the PRC and the Postmaster General to develop a system to use digital bundle information as a substitute (or “proxy”) if piece-level data isn't available. This means they can track the performance of the mail bundles—the containers or groupings of mail—rather than every individual newspaper. If they decide to use this proxy data, they have to publicly explain why, detailing the costs and benefits of that choice, which adds another layer of accountability.

The Future of Mail Pricing: A Two-Year Study

Finally, the bill commissions the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study over the next two years on alternative pricing models for mail services that currently lose money for the USPS (Sec. 4). Periodicals are often cited as a class of mail that costs more to process and deliver than the postage revenue they generate.

The GAO’s job is to figure out pricing schemes that could put the USPS on better financial footing regarding these products. The results of this study could significantly reshape the future cost of mailing a magazine or newspaper. For publishers, this means two years of uncertainty while the GAO looks at potential models that might force them to pay more, regardless of the USPS’s delivery performance. It’s a necessary look at sustainability, but one that could lead to higher costs for the industry down the line.