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The Senate yesterday approved a $107 billion financial overhaul of the long-beleaguered U.S. Postal Service, providing monetary relief for the agency that leaders say will allow it to modernize and invest in efficient service, the Washington Post reported. President Biden has signaled his intent to sign the legislation, which has already cleared the House. The Postal Service Reform Act, which passed 79 to 19, provides financial flexibility for the mail agency to take on improvements that have been debated for years. The Postal Service has endured years of losses triggered by slumping mail volumes and a 2006 bill that required it to annually pre-fund retirees’ health-care costs. Declines in mail revenue have forced the agency to default on those health-care payments since 2011. The bill passed yesterday gives the agency a significant reprieve, removing $57 billion in past-due postal liabilities and eliminating $50 billion in payments over the next 10 years. It requires future postal retirees to enroll in Medicare, a move that would add minuscule costs to the public health-care system but would save taxpayers $1.5 billion over the next decade. The legislation also codifies new timely-delivery transparency requirements for the Postal Service, which has struggled with on-time service since Postmaster General Louis DeJoy took office in June 2020, and allows the agency to contract with local, state and Indigenous governments to offer basic non-mail services, such as hunting and fishing licenses.

Online-mortgage lender Better is firing roughly 3,000 employees in the U.S. and India as rising interest rates weigh on the volume of new loans, Bloomberg News reported. The total represents about 35% of the company’s workforce. Better eliminated approximately 9% of its workforce last year, announcing the move in a video conference call. Chief Executive Officer Vishal Garg later apologized for how that round of cuts was handled, and took a hiatus before returning in January. This time, the company said it would contact all of the affected workers personally. All will be eligible for severance payments, and U.S. employees will receive extended medical benefits.

More than 50 years ago, nearly a dozen men incarcerated outside of Philadelphia enrolled in an experiment funded by Johnson & Johnson, according to unsealed documents. Now, those studies have come back to haunt the world’s largest maker of health-care products, Bloomberg News reported. In one study, inmates were paid to be injected with potentially cancer-causing asbestos so the company could compare its effect on their skin versus that of talc, a key component in its iconic baby powder. University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Albert Kligman conducted hundreds of human experiments over two decades at Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania. The testing regime, funded by entities such as Dow Chemical and the U.S. government, involved mostly Black inmates and first came to light decades ago in books and newspaper articles. But J&J’s involvement in the talc studies focusing on asbestos hasn’t been made public in the media before now. The unsealed prison-testing files came to light in two trials last year over legal claims that J&J’s talc-based powder causes cancer, and legal experts say that information could be powerful evidence in future cases, justifying punishment awards. While they didn’t dispute the company hired Kligman in the 1960s to do baby powder tests, J&J officials said they regretted the firm’s involvement with the dermatologist. Still, they noted the tests didn’t violate research standards at the time.

The U.S. added 678,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in February, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department, The Hill reported. Unprecedented demand for workers and resilient consumer spending helped power another strong month of job growth in February. Economists expected the U.S. to add roughly 400,000 jobs last month, far less than the actual haul in the February jobs report, and push the jobless rate to 3.9 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the U.S. saw “widespread” job growth in February led by a surge in service sector hiring — a promising sign for industries still recovering from the onset of the pandemic. Leisure and hospitality employment rose by 179,000 jobs in February, led by a gain of 124,000 jobs in restaurants and bars. Professional and business services added 95,000 jobs, the health care sector added 64,000 jobs and construction employment rose by 60,000 after staying flat in January. Transportation and warehousing employment rose by 48,000 in February, and retail trade employment rose by 37,000. The BLS also revised the December and January job gains up by a combined 92,000 jobs.

California, whose recovery of jobs lost during the height of the pandemic lags that of the U.S. overall, said low labor market force growth and supply chain disruptions pose risks to its municipal-bond investors, Bloomberg News reported. In documents circulated to potential buyers of its $2.2 billion general-obligation deal on March 9, the state added the threats to its list of dangers they should consider. The administration of Governor Gavin Newsom expects the labor force to recover to pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter this year. “If current labor market frictions (impediments to employers and job seekers agreeing on employment, e.g., disagreements on appropriate wages, workplace safety or ability to work remotely) persist longer than projected, then low labor force growth would constrain job growth, which in turn would lead to less consumption and spending,” the state said in the documents. California has regained 72% of the jobs lost during the onset of the pandemic, while the nation has recovered 87%, according to federal data. Its unemployment rate of 6.5% in December was the highest among U.S. states.

President Biden used his State of the Union address to refocus the nation on how far the economy has come since the pandemic recession. But he also highlighted his plans to help slow rapid price gains, underscoring the challenge Democrats face ahead of the midterm elections: Inflation is painfully high, voters are unhappy about it, and the most tried and true way to cool price increases involves hurting growth and the labor market, the New York Times reported. Biden struck a defiant tone in the face of that glum outlook, insisting that his administration can take steps — including encouraging corporate competition and strengthening a supply chain that has struggled to keep up with consumer demand — to slow price increases without dragging down employment and pay. The challenge is that White House policies have historically served as a backup line of defense when it comes to containing inflation, which is primarily the Federal Reserve’s job. The central bank is prepared to move swiftly in the coming months to raise interest rates, making money more expensive to borrow and spend. Higher rates are meant to slow hiring, wage growth and demand enough to tamp down price increases. It is possible that inflation could ease up so much on its own this year that the Fed will be able to gently slow the economy toward a sustainable path. But if price gains remain rapid, the Fed’s playbook for combating overheating is by inflicting economic pain. That makes inflation — which is running at the fastest pace in 40 years — a major liability for the Biden administration, one that the president addressed repeatedly Tuesday night and called his “top priority.” It is undermining consumer confidence by chipping away at paychecks and causing sticker shock for consumers trying to buy groceries, couches or used cars. Biden said his administration would begin a “crackdown” on ocean shipping costs, which have soared during the pandemic. He suggested that the administration wanted to cut the cost of prescription drugs, an ongoing push of his.