“A bill to facilitate the leasing of United States Postal Service property for the development of housing, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section finds that the United States faces a housing supply shortage that has produced record numbers of cost-burdened households, that the Postal Service has recorded annual net losses since fiscal year 2007 including a $9 billion loss in fiscal year 2025, and that the Postal Service owns roughly 8,500 parcels of land, many suitable for housing development. It further finds that leasing such land to state, local, and Tribal governments and their partners for housing would generate revenue and align with the Postal Service's mission.
This section defines terms used in the Act. Eligible housing use means a project to construct new housing units for which at least 80 percent of total net rentable area is exclusively residential and which may include commercial, recreational, or public uses. Joint Development Partnership means a joint venture between a public entity and one or more private, nonprofit, public housing agency, or local housing finance agency entities with demonstrated capacity to construct and operate rental housing, memorialized in a binding agreement. Public entity includes states and their agencies, political subdivisions, the District of Columbia and listed territories, and Indian tribes or Alaska Native villages.
This section establishes a Housing Liaison Office within the Postal Service within 60 days of enactment. The Office must inventory all Postal Service real property feasible for housing development, considering parcel size, constraints, and proximity to amenities, and publish the inventory in the Federal Register and on a Postal Service website within 180 days and annually thereafter. It must also publish guidance within 180 days establishing a joint development process for partnerships to propose and negotiate leases of Postal Service property, including air and ground rights, for eligible housing uses; make model lease documents publicly available; and enter into such leases at the Postmaster’s discretion, prioritizing those that cover facility maintenance or renovation costs, involve experienced developers willing to use subsidies, and maximize income-restricted affordable units, while refusing leases that fail to cover costs or substantially disrupt mail delivery.
This section requires lease agreements under the Act to run for at least 60 years and include affordability restrictions lasting at least 50 years, with not less than 20 percent of units reserved for households earning 80 percent or less of area median income. It mandates that the Postal Service receive revenue over the lease term equal to the lesser of the appraised fair annual rental value or net present value of the property rights, minus any public benefit. It prohibits sales of real property rights, requires preservation of art completed between 1934 and 1943 and commissioned by specified Treasury programs, and applies Davis-Bacon prevailing wage standards to construction, alteration, or repair work. It provides that such leases do not constitute a closure or consolidation under 39 U.S.C. 404(d).
This section provides $10 million in initial funding from Postal Service property sales upon enactment for the Office's activities. It authorizes appropriations of $10 million annually for fiscal years 2027 through 2031, available until expended, with unappropriated amounts authorized in subsequent years. It also permits the Postal Service to reserve up to $10 million (inflation-adjusted) each year from lease revenues for the Office, with remaining lease revenue deposited into the Postal Service Fund.