Last year, the U.S Postal Service (USPS) lost more than $2 billion. This operating deficit was not a rare occurrence, as the agency has run deficits regularly over the past decade. This is because plunging mail volume has cut into its revenues. It is also $15 billion in debt and has more than $100 billion […]
A government cannot be held accountable if citizens don’t know its policies, its plans and its progress in implementing them. Democratic governments must be transparent about much they spend each year and for what purposes. Deploying modern tools to collect and analyze data also can help the public make informed decisions on questions large and […]
With congressional partisanship at record highs and congressional approval ratings at record lows, the federal government’s so-called “first branch” should consider reform. Two recent white papers (one analyzing the House;the other, the Senate) cast light on the nature of the admittedly complex problem. Together this research suggests that a significant amount of power has shifted to the chambers’ leaders. The legislature has shifted from […]
Regulatory reform has garnered significant attention lately, both in Congress and on the campaign trail. Republican nominees for president each have released plans to tackle regulatory overreach, while congressional Republicans have advanced a variety of reform bills. Much of the attention to this issue is driven by research finding an increase in the overall federal regulatory burden. In arriving at this […]
To appreciate democratic dysfunction, one need look no further than the U.S. Postal Service. That single agency is home to all of the defining fights of modern politics, with all of the usual symptoms. Postal policy currently is embroiled in disputes over how to define the agency’s role with respect to private industry; how to […]
In late 2014, the R Street Institute launched the Governance Project. Its task is large: to assess and improve the state of America’s system of national self-governance, with particular attention to Congress. The need for such inquiry should be obvious. Our federal republic is showing signs of dyspepsia, if not outright dysfunction. National public-policy issues, […]
