Nixon signs Postal Reorganization Act transforming Post Office Department into independent USPS

President Nixon signs the Postal Reorganization Act (P.L. 91-375), transforming the U.S. Post Office Department, a cabinet agency since 1792, into the independent United States Postal Service, a government-owned corporation that funds itself through postage revenue. The law responds to the March 1970 nationwide postal strike, the largest strike against the federal government in U.S. history, and growing deficits. The new USPS structure removes the postmaster general from the Cabinet and creates a Board of Governors to lead the agency at arm's length from political control.