Week Ending February 18, 2022
- Public Safety Officer Support Act introduced
- Postal Service Reform Act heads to the Senate
- Register for infrastructure webinars
Public Safety Officer Support Act introduced
Last week, the Public Safety Officer Support Act was introduced with bipartisan support by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in the Senate (S. 3635) and Rep. David Trone (D-MD) in the House (H.R. 3071). The bill would extend death and disability benefits under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program (PSOB) to certain public safety officers and survivors of public safety officers who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress disorder following a stressful situation while on duty. The PSOB program provides death, disability and education benefits to public safety officers and their survivors who are killed or injured in the line of duty. AFSCME wholeheartedly supports this legislation and will continue to advocate for its passage.
Postal Service Reform Act heads to the Senate
The House recently passed H.R. 3076, the Postal Service Reform Act, by a huge margin of 342-92, a monumental victory for our sisters and brothers who work for the USPS. Now, the Senate is expected to act on the legislation in the coming weeks and send the bill to President Joe Biden for his signature. After years of debate, there is finally bipartisan consensus on legislation that eliminates the mandate that the Postal Service prefund its retiree health care benefits decades in advance, a requirement asked of no other public or private agency. Among other reforms, the legislation benefits all Americans by permanently mandating six-day mail delivery, which has been required by temporary, annual appropriation policy riders since the 1980s. Six-day service is critically important to the 159 million business and residential customers served by the USPS every day.
Register for infrastructure webinars
Lastly, the White House announced a series of helpful webinars on the implementation of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (aka the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.) Please feel free to register for any of the subject matter webinars that are of interest to you and your members and pass along this information to other leaders and staff you believe would benefit. We will share additional information and future webinar registration links as they become available but wanted to ensure you marked your calendars now if interested. If you have further questions, please reach out to Alex Townsend in Federal Government Affairs.
The White House’s infrastructure webinars will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays 4 p.m.–5 p.m. ET from Feb. 17 to March 24.
Registration is open for the following webinars:
Feb. 17: Airports
Feb. 22: Electric Vehicles
Feb. 24: Public Transportation
Feb. 28: Rail Road
Mark your calendars for these upcoming sessions:
March 3: Roads, Bridges and Major Projects
March 8: Safety
March 10: Clean Energy and Power
March 15: Water
March 17: Resilience
March 22: Environmental Remediation
March 24: Broadband