The Postal Service’s regulator is looking to grow its tiny workforce to oversee some of the biggest changes in recent USPS history.
The Postal Regulatory Commission prioritized new hires and tech upgrades in its fiscal 2024 budget request to increase its capacity, after launching a public inquiry into USPS plans to overhaul its network of mail processing and delivery facilities across the country.
But it’s not getting everything it asked for, now that the USPS Board of Governors approves its spending, not Congress.
It’s not unusual for an agency to get less funding than it asks for, but the PRC is getting its funding from USPS at a time when the agency has pushed back against the public inquiry — and when Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has questioned whether USPS even needs a regulator.