@DavidSalo It's the old Republican playbook: complain about an agency, then try to "fix" it by cutting its funds and interfering with its work.
Republicans in the California legislature used to play it with school funds: hold back as much as they could, then say the schools weren't doing a good enough job to deserve any more money. Congressional conservatives have done it to the Postal Service, imposing financial rules no other carrier has to follow. It's a kind of stealth nihilism.