Lawmakers unveil measure to give Postal Service $6B for electric vehicles

House Democrats have introduced a proposal to give the U.S. Postal Service billions to equip the department with tens of thousands of electric delivery vehicles.

The bill would allocate $6 billion in funding to Postal Service and require at least 75 percent of a new fleet be electric or zero-emission vehicles, according to Reuters.

“We welcome and are interested in any support from Congress that advances the goal of a Postal Service vehicle fleet with zero emissions, and the necessary infrastructure required to operate it,” the Postal Service said in a statement to the outlet Monday. “With the right level of support, the majority of the Postal Service’s fleet can be electric by the end of the decade.”

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and has support from Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). 

President Biden earlier this year announced a promise to replace vehicles owned by the federal government with U.S.-made electric vehicles.

“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles which we’re going to replace with clean, electric vehicles made right here in America by American workers,” Biden said in January.

The bill would mandate at least half of medium and heavy-duty vehicle purchases be electric or zero-emission through 2029, Reuters reported, and all new Postal Service vehicles to be zero-emission by 2040.