Dan Tangherlini, former head of the General Services Administration, and Derek Kan, former deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday to discuss priorities and how they would oversee reforms at the U.S. Postal Service if confirmed to the USPS’ board of governors, Federal News Network reported.
Some of the priorities discussed are the procurement of more electric vehicles and implementation of a data dashboard designed to monitor the service performance of USPS.
Kan highlighted the need for the agency to have the needed charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
“If we buy 10,000 electric vehicles and we deploy them to Montana, or to some rural parts of the country, there may not be the electrification of the grid to support these vehicles. I think a major pitfall is ensuring that all of the components needed for a procurement are in place,” Kan said.
Tangherlini also mentioned the need for infrastructure.
“The actual cost wasn’t the vehicles itself, but the infrastructure, and then the need to make sure that the service ultimately that you’re responsible for is being delivered. At its core, it doesn’t matter what the vehicle is, as long as the mail is getting to people’s residences,” he said.
Tangherlini shared his thoughts on the data dashboard and its potential benefits to service delivery efforts.
“Creating clear expectations in terms of service delivery, creating clear expectations in terms of even delivering the tools that Congress has given the Postal Service, then, for people to evaluate and see that performance, is a fundamental responsibility of a governor, and should I be confirmed, that will be my highest priority,” he added.
In November 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Tangherlini and Kan to serve on the USPS board of governors.
