Administrative Agency

Pick an administrative agency of either the federal or a state government. Find where the current and proposed regulation changes for that agency are located on the Internet. (i.e., the Federal Register or the State Administrative Agency website.) Regulations.gov is a good place to begin your research. Pick one proposed regulation change currently under consideration (if you find one that has already closed out but interests you, you can use that instead) and write the following regarding it:

1. State the administrative agency which controls the regulation. Explain why this agency and your proposed regulation interests you (briefly). Will this proposed regulation affect you or the business in which you are working? If so, how? Submit a copy of the proposed regulation along with your responses to these five questions. The proposed regulation can be submitted as either a separate Word document (.doc) or Adobe file (.pdf). This means you will submit two attachments to the Week 2 Dropbox: (a) a Word document with the questions and your answers and (b) a copy of the proposed regulation you used for this assignment. (10 points)

The United States Postal Service - This proposed change interests me because I am currently involved in developing this change for the system I work, for my company. In changing from the Postnet barcodes to the IMB™ barcodes my company will incur a huge cost for the purpose of receiving postal discounts. They would have to change five systems that would generate the mailings that go to our customers along with three print systems. This cost would also need to include all stages of generating requirements, testing and changes to the current layout of all correspondence to allow for the additional space for the barcode. If they did not comply with the changes by January 2013 my company would no longer receive the bulk mail discounts that they are currently receiving.

2. Describe the proposal/change. (10 points)

The United States Postal Service is proposing that business no longer use the Postnet barcodes on correspondence they mail out of their business. They now want companies to use the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB™) instead. Per the postal system by using the IMB™ barcodes they (the postal service) will be able to give better service, staff employees better and meet regulatory commitments.

3. Write the public comment that you would submit to this proposal. If the proposed regulation deadline has already passed, write the comment you would have submitted. Explain briefly what you wish to accomplish with your comment. (10 points)

My comment is that everyone understands that in order for the United States Postal Service to work efficiently changes are needed. We have seen some of these changes over the past couple of years when it has come to the increase in the cost of stamps. In requiring business to make the required changes to their current systems by January 2013 will cause undue stress and cost. In order to comply with this change correspondence format would need to be updated, new algorithm would need to be applied and testing would need to be done. Since the new IMB™ tool combines all of the previous barcodes used the postal system a phased in approach would seem more advisable. I urge you to reconsider the date deadline for this new rule.

4. Provide the "deadline"