Government affairs

In May 2021, Reps. Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) introduced the bipartisan USPS Shipping Equity Act (H.R. 3287). This bill would allow the Postal Service to ship beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages directly from licensed producers and retailers to legal customers. H.R. 3287 has 42 bipartisan cosponsors in the House and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate (S. 1663).

Under current law, the Postal Service is banned from shipping alcoholic goods, which makes private shippers such as FedEx and UPS the only option for wineries, breweries and other producers to have goods delivered directly to customers. This bill would give USPS two years to develop regulations, ensuring the Postal Service is prepared to safely deliver alcoholic beverages to adult consumers with appropriate identification checks. If passed into law, this bill would generate an estimated $190 million annually in new revenue for the Postal Service.

“NALC supports the USPS Shipping Equity Act and encourages all members of Congress to cosponsor the bill,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “The Postal Service delivers to every address in the nation, while private shippers do not. This legislation would allow the Postal Service to expand its services, which benefits all Americans, while providing needed revenue for the agency.”

This week, NALC sent a letter to Congress cosigned by other postal unions and alcohol distributing unions, requesting members of Congress cosponsor H.R. 3287/S. 1663.

Click here to see if your representative is a cosponsor. NALC encourages letter carriers to contact their representatives and ask them to cosponsor this bill.