In an effort to further the transparency of the US Postal Service’s reporting practices, the Postal Regulatory Commission has published its proposed regulations for the form and content of information the agency routinely reports to the PRC.
These regulations follow the passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) in December 2006, which granted the USPS more autonomy and flexibility in rates and discounts for mail products. This shift increased the PRC’s information gathering and reporting responsibilities. The proposed rulemaking sets up information required to evaluate the USPS’s compliance with the new regulatory and reform framework brought about by the PAEA.
“The Commission carefully crafted these regulations with an eye toward balancing the burden of information production with the mailing public’s right to know, and the data needed to carry out the various Commission assessments that the PAEA requires,” said PRC Chairman Dan G. Blair, in a statement.
Among the changes are more frequent reporting from the USPS on a number of items such as the postal service’s Revenue and Expense Summaries Report and the National Consolidated Trial Balances; a compliance analysis to accompany the USPS’s annual report and the distinct reporting of separate volumes and revenues for each category of preferred rate mail (such as Standard Regular Nonprofit, Outside County Nonprofit), even if that category is not defined as a separate “product.
A complete copy of the proposed regulations are at www.prc.gov and will be available in the Federal Register. Comments to the proposed regulations are due by October 16, 2008, and reply comments are due by November 15, 2008.
