The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 created the US Postal Service Board of Governors. The Governors on the Board fulfill the constitutional requirement that executive branch entities be run by presidential appointees. The US Postal Service Board of Governors is authorized to have seven Governors appointed by the President in addition to the Postmaster General and the Deputy Postmaster General. For the last few years, the Senate has not approved any of the potential Governors nominated by President Obama. On December 8, 2016 the last of the seven appointees, Mr. James Bilbray, reached the end of the one year extension of his term. What happens when there are no presidential appointees on the Board of Governors?
Here is a list of things only the Governors can do:
While the Board of Governors can delegate many things to the Postmaster General, there are items that, by law, only the presidentially appointed Governors can do. These include, but are not limited to:
- Appointment, compensation, term of service, and removal of the Postmaster General
- Compensation of the Deputy Postmaster General
- Establishment of rates and classes for competitive postal products
- Authorization of rate and fee changes for market dominant postal products
- Authorization of a request to the PRC to add, remove, or reclassify products
- Authorization of a notice to the PRC of substantive changes to product descriptions in the Mail Classification Schedule
- Appointment and removal of the Inspector General
- Transmission of the OIG’s Semi-Annual Report to Congress
- Selection of a firm to conduct required USPS financial audits