united-states new-york-state mail postal-service
What specific documents describe a US Postmaster&#39;s roles, responsibilities and the extent of their powers?
<p>In the United States, and more specifically, New York State (if it makes any difference), which set of publicly-available, written document(s) describe the exact nature and extent of a US Postal Service Postmaster's powers, duties and responsibilities?</p>

<p>The organization of the Postal Service is set forth in <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title39/part1/chapter2&amp;edition=prelim" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Title 39 of the United States Code</a> and the U.S. Postmaster General's role in the U.S. Postal Service is set forth at 39 U.S.C. § 203, although references to the U.S. Postmaster General are found throughout Title 39. Section 203 states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>§203. Postmaster General; Deputy Postmaster General</p>
<p>The chief executive officer of the Postal Service is the Postmaster
General appointed under section 202(c) of this title. The alternate
chief executive officer of the Postal Service is the Deputy Postmaster
General appointed under section 202(d) of this title.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The powers of the Postmaster General vis-a-vis the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service are further clarified at 39 U.S.C. 402 which states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>§402. Delegation of authority</p>
<p>Except for those powers, duties, or obligations specifically vested in
the Governors, as distinguished from the Board of Governors, the Board
may delegate the authority vested in it to the Postmaster General
under such terms, conditions, and limitations, including the power of
redelegation, as it deems desirable. The Board may establish such
committees of the Board, and delegate such powers to any committee, as
the Board determines appropriate to carry out its functions and
duties. Delegations to the Postmaster General or committees shall be
consistent with other provisions of this title, shall not relieve the
Board of full responsibility for the carrying out of its duties and
functions, and shall be revocable by the Governors in their exclusive
judgment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a practical matter, the Board of Governors delegates responsibility for almost everything related to the operations of the U.S. Postal Service to the Postmaster General.</p>
<p>Also, to be clear, the U.S. Postmaster General isn't the only person with the title &quot;Postmaster&quot; in the U.S. Postal Service and it isn't entirely clear which person with that title is being discussed in this question. The title &quot;Postmaster&quot; without elaboration or further detail refers to the U.S. Postal Service official who is the top manager in charge of a particular post office, which could have just one or two employees in an rural area, or might have hundreds of employees in a particular post office in someplace like New York City.</p>
<p>It would be helpful to know why the person asking the question wants to know, in order to determine which position is really relevant and to make a more focused inquiry into that person's relevant duties, responsibilities, and authority.</p>
<p>In U.S. law it is frequently the case that issues that come up frequently are well defined, but that other issues which come up only infrequently if ever, have answers that are ill-defined, vague, or indeterminate. A &quot;top down&quot; approach of trying to find governing documents that provide a general answer to all possible questions is rarely a fruitful one.</p>
<p>Based upon a previous closed question, it looks like the main reason question is <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/91211/nys-what-documents-give-authority-to-postmasters-to-decide-which-houses-get-mai">who has the authority to decide which houses get mail delivery</a> and how decisions regarding this matter can be disputed.</p>
<p>I don't know the answer to that question without research, but I suspect that the answer is a mix of regulations suggested by the Postmaster General and approved by the Board of Governors, in the Code of Federal Regulations, that are implemented by a local post office level postmaster for the region including that house or their regional supervisor, but I don't know that for a fact.</p>
<p>In that question you stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I assume that on the funding path, contacting our local NYS State
Assembly member would be the first stop, but this is all new territory
for me and I would appreciate any and all pointers as to how to go
about finding available funding to support the new mail routes. But my
real question here is: assuming the funding was even there, how do we
(as a Village) put pressure on the US Postal Service (local and
Regional) to deliver mail to our streets?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Your assumption was wrong, but close. Since the U.S. Postal Service is part of the federal government, rather than part of the state government, your New York State Assemblyman has absolutely no input or clout on this issue at all. The people you would need to contact would be your local member of the House of Representatives, and secondarily the two U.S. Senators for New York State.</p>
<p>Each elected official in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate has staff members who are devoted to what is called &quot;constituent service&quot; which basically means helping ordinary people navigate the federal bureaucracy to meet their needs. If you were to contact one of these offices, you would be put in the touch with a constituent services staff member of that elected official who would help you figure out a solution to your problem, or would tell you that either as a matter of practical reality, or as a matter of that elected official's position on that particular issue, that the office won't be able to help you.</p>
<p>Constituent services staff members contact the right person in the federal bureaucracy (in this case the right person in the U.S. Postal Service) to inquire, in what is known by employees within those federal government agencies as &quot;a Congressional&quot; which receives very high priority in the agency relative to ordinary citizen complaints and communications.</p>
<p>Agencies that disregard Congressional inquiries routinely find their funding interrupted, appointments to their agency frozen, riders to legislation related to their agency specifically addressing the issue, and related follow up communications from the President at the request of a member of Congress when the President needs support from that member of Congress, none of which is something that the top officials in the agency want to deal with if it can be avoided in any way.</p>
<p>Contacting your local U.S. House member's office should probably be your first step.</p>

<p>You are looking for the Postal Operations Manual, a searchable PDF file available <a href="https://www.nalc.org/workplace-issues/resources/body/Postal-Operations-Manual-POM-Issue-9-July-2002-Updated-With-Revisions-Through-January-31-2021.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>. As a federal operation, there aren't state-specific variants in the rules.</p>
