The head of the Postal Service’s regulatory agency is stepping down, after challenging some of the more controversial parts of a 10-year USPS reform plan.

Michael Kubayanda, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, is leaving the agency, after serving for more than six years.

Kubayanda’s term lasts through November 2026, but he told Federal News Network that he’s stepping down from the agency “completely on my own accord.”

Kubayanda led the regulatory agency at a time when its role was repeatedly questioned by the officials it was tasked with overseeing. He said the regulatory agency improved its data analytics capabilities during his tenure, and put “sensible pressure on the Postal Service to do a better job” through its advisory opinions. He noted that the commission has been addressing the concerns of policymakers and citizens about service in rural areas in particular. 

Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Michael Kubayanda is stepping down, after serving at the agency since 2018.

“We actually saw that there’s a need for strong oversight of the Delivering for America plan,” Kubayanda said. “We stepped up in the face of a lot of pressure, and I think we did a good job of providing transparency and oversight.” 

The Postal Regulatory Commission, under Kubayanda’s leadership, criticized key components of former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s 10-year “Delivering for America” plan.

DeJoy blamed the regulator’s inaction for the worsening financial health of USPS after the 2008 recession, and questioned the need to have such a regulator. Congress created the Postal Regulatory Commission to oversee the Postal Service’s monopoly over mail.

President Donald Trump can submit his own nominee to run the regulatory agency. But in the meantime, by law, Robert Taub, the regulatory agency’s vice chairman, will carry out its administrative duties.

Trump’s eventual pick to lead the regulatory agency will oversee USPS, as led by its new postmaster general, David Steiner, a former FedEx board member and former Waste Management CEO.

Steiner said in August that USPS is “on the right path,” under a 10-year reform plan launched by his predecessor.

“The strategy is sound. Now we have to execute,” Steiner said. “But we can’t execute unless all of our team is working together. We all need to be rowing the oars in the same direction.”

Kubayanda said Steiner has worked cooperatively with the Postal Regulatory Commission. USPS, however, continues to face significant financial challenges.

“We’ve exercised strong oversight, and I think that’s been necessary. But I do want to give the new postmaster general some credit for coming off as open-minded to us, in the way he’s dealt with the postal ecosystem,” Kubayanda said. “We’re going to have to see some action, and I think he deserves a bit of a period to figure things out. But the status quo is not going to get the job done.”

USPS is roughly halfway through the 10-year “Delivering for America” plan, but is far from achieving its “break-even” financial goals. The agency is tracking to end fiscal 2025 with a nearly $7 billion net loss.

Despite declining mail volume, USPS continues to see modest growth in mail revenue. That’s because the agency has settled into a pattern of usually raising stamp prices each January and July.

But its regulator is considering limits to those price increases. A proposed rule from the Postal Regulatory Commission filed in June would limit USPS to only raising prices once per year.

Members of the USPS Board of Governors said it would be a mistake for the commission to override the board’s pricing decisions.

The regulator gave USPS the freedom to set mail prices higher than the rate of inflation in 2020, when the agency was at risk of running out of cash.

USPS raised the price of a first-class Forever stamp to 78 cents in July, but recently announced that it would not raise mail prices in January 2026. 

DeJoy announced he was stepping down in February. Before leaving the agency in March, DeJoy signed an agreement with the Department of Government Efficiency, allowing a DOGE team into the agency. USPS is largely financed through its own revenue and operates independently from the executive branch.

The regulator warned USPS in January that the next phase of its 10-year reform plan would slow down mail delivery for a “significant portion of the nation,” but wouldn’t save USPS enough money to justify the changes.

The regulator’s assessment focused on two major initiatives: USPS opening massive new mail processing facilities across the country, as part of a historic “network modernization” plan, and the agency running trucks less often between those plants and post offices to transport mail, under a “Regional Transportation Optimization” strategy.

DeJoy repeatedly butted heads with the Postal Regulatory Commission. He blamed the regulator for not allowing USPS to set mail prices higher than the rate of inflation as its financial condition deteriorated following the 2008 recession, and told lawmakers that the regulator’s probes into its “Delivering for America” plan would “put this whole plan in jeopardy.”

The PRC’s advisory opinions, however, are nonbinding, and USPS is free to keep implementing its plans.

In one of his last letters to congressional leaders, DeJoy said the regulator has “an anachronistic view of the Postal Service’s current business environment.”

Among its duties, the Postal Regulatory Commission oversees contracts between USPS and companies that often focus on discounted pricing in exchange for a guarantee of sending a certain volume of mail or packages. The commission oversaw a 400% increase in these negotiated service agreements between fiscal 2021 and 2024. The pace of contract approvals increased even more in the first three quarters of 2025, when the commission approved 1,521 contracts, according to its homepage.

“That speaks really well to our productivity. Even as we had all these high-level, big-picture things going on that took a lot of our attention, the staff did a really great job,” Kubayanda said.

Trump nominated Kubayanda to serve on the commission during his first term in June 2018, and he was later elected as its vice chairman. Former President Joe Biden appointed Kubayanda as the PRC’s chairman in January 2021, and renominated him to serve for a second term.

Lawmakers representing rural areas were some of the most vocal opponents of DeJoy’s reform plans. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said he would “do everything I can to kill” the “Delivering for America” plan.

In May, Hawley introduced the No Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) Act, a bill that would prohibit USPS from advancing some of its reform plans if the Postal Regulatory Commission determines they would negatively impact rural communities.

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) introduced the USPS SERVES US Act, which he said would give the Postal Regulatory Commission the “ability to do more than just give an opinion,” and would limit USPS’s ability to set higher mail prices if its on-time delivery metrics deteriorate.

“When they know a rate increase is a bad idea or they determine that service is failing, they can only say that, not step in and make changes,” Graves said.

Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), introduced the Postal Processing Protection Act, which would allow community residents to appeal USPS mail processing facility closures to the PRC.

Kubayanda said the introduction of bipartisan bills strengthening the role of the Postal Regulatory Commission “speaks loudly to the fact that people feel like we had an impact,” especially for policymakers worried about service in rural areas.

The post USPS regulator’s chairman, who challenged sweeping changes under DeJoy, is stepping down first appeared on Federal News Network.