Federal agencies were created to oversee specific areas or aspects of the government's responsibility to its citizens. Federal agencies also do specific jobs that the government has promised to perform. As the role of government and the needs of people and society have changed, new agencies have been established. You will choose one federal agency to discuss in an informative essay. You should do outside research and write an essay on the structure of the agency and its function.

Respuesta :

Federal agencies are special government organizations. Some of the main responsibilities of the federal agencies are:  management of resources, financial oversight of industries and control of the national security issues. 
The federal agencies are created by legislative action and the directors are selected by Presidential appointment. 

This is my essay that I turned in! Please make sure to paraphrase/summarize each paragraph.

Federal agencies were created to oversee specific areas or aspects of the government's responsibility to its citizens. Federal agencies also do specific jobs that the government has promised to perform. As the role of government and the needs of people and society have changed, new agencies have been established. The US Postal Service (USPS) is a federal agency that oversees various types of mail and packages. They make sure that the citizens of the United States of America get their mail processed and delivered.  

The USPS (United States Postal Service) is a federal agency that is responsible for providing postal service in the United States. This is accomplished through collecting postage for letter and package mailings, sorting and delivering mail, and selling post-related products such as commemorative and collector stamps and postal supplies. The United States Postal Service's Board of Governors determines policy, procedure, and postal rates. It serves in the same capacity as a corporate board of directors. Nine of the eleven board members are President-appointed and Senate-confirmed. The U.S. Postmaster General, who acts as the board's tenth member, is chosen by these nine appointed members.  

Before the mail service was invented, people relied on friends, merchants, and native Americans to deliver packages, letters, and even more. Mail service reached California by 1848, hoping to deliver mail within 3-4 weeks from the time it was sent. In 1862, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair suggested that the Postal Service extend free delivery of mail by salaried mail carriers. Mail carriers walked as many as 22 miles a day, carrying up to 50 pounds of mail at a time. Mail volume has declined by more than 43 billion pieces in the past five years, with single-piece First-Class letters declining by 36%. In the last year alone, First-Class Mail has declined by 6.6%, with USPS processing about 563 million pieces of mail a day. While commercial junk mail, now known as "Standard Mail," has been experiencing a 1.7% increase in revenue this year, it generates only a third as much as First-Class Mail, and therefore can't make up for the loss of First-Class business.

Although the USPS is often mistaken for a government-owned corporation like Amtrak, it is legally defined as an “independent establishment of the executive branch.” As a quasi-government agency, it has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver First-Class and Standard Mail. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the USPS was not a government-owned corporation and could not be sued under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Postal Service’s Independent Office of Inspector General (OIG) prevents waste, fraud, theft, and misconduct by the Postal Service. In 2004, the responsibilities of this office increased, when allegations of postal employee misconduct were added. Starting in February 2007, issues of embezzlement, record falsification, workers’ compensation fraud, contract fraud, and on-duty narcotics violations were referred to the USPS OIG.

In conclusion, the USPS is an extremely important federal agency. They are responsible for transporting our bills, checks, personal items, and much more around the United States of America. Without them, we would be experiencing much more fraud and we would be seeing a lot more crime. Drugs would be more readily available and identity theft would be a much more common crime to experience. The USPS oversees most of our mail and packages, ensuring it gets there safely so we don’t have a thing to worry about.