16702 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 57 / Thursday, March 24, 2022 / Proposed Rules 

7.9.3 Measuring Selvage 

Measure selvage on soft packaging 

parcels as follows: 

■ a. With the parcel held horizontally/ 

landscape and the contents totally 

positioned at the bottom of the soft 

packaging, the selvage must not exceed 

2 inches at the top of the mailpiece. 

■ b. With the parcel held horizontally/ 

landscape and the contents totally 

positioned to the left or to the right side 

of the soft packaging, the selvage must 

not exceed 2 inches on the opposite side 

of the mailpiece. 

* * * * * 

Sarah E. Sullivan, 

Attorney, Ethics and Legal Compliance. 

[FR Doc. 2022–05600 Filed 3–23–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7710–12–P 

POSTAL SERVICE 

39 CFR Part 111 

Periodicals Requester Records 

Requirements 

AGENCY: Postal ServiceTM. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Postal Service proposes 

to amend Mailing Standards of the 

United States Postal Service, Domestic 

Mail Manual (DMM®) to revise 

verification requirements for authorized 

audit bureaus. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before April 25, 2022. 

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed 

or delivered to Dale Kennedy (Director, 

Product Classification), United States 

Postal Service, 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, 

Washington, DC 20260–1101; or 

submitted to pcfederalregister@

usps.gov. Faxed comments will not be 

accepted. 

All written comments may be 

inspected and photocopied, by 

appointment only, at Postal Service 

Headquarters Library, 475 L’Enfant 

Plaza SW, 11th Floor North, 

Washington, DC. These records will be 

available for review Monday through 

Friday, 9 a.m.–4 p.m., by calling 202– 

268–2906. All submitted comments and 

attachments are part of the public record 

and subject to disclosure. Do not 

enclose any material in your comments 

that you consider to be confidential or 

inappropriate for public disclosure. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dale 

Kennedy at (202) 268–6592. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Postal 

Service is publishing this notice of 

proposed rulemaking to enact new 

procedures for auditing compliance 

with circulation standards for 

Periodicals requester publications and 

standardize existing procedures across 

Postal Service publications. The Postal 

Service is also using this opportunity to 

update its listing of authorized audit 

bureaus for Periodicals verification and 

requests each authorized audit bureau 

notify the Postal Service to confirm its 

status. 

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) 

207.6.4.2a provides that a Periodicals 

requester publication must have a 

legitimate list of persons who have 

requested the publication and 50% or 

more of the copies must be distributed 

to persons making such requests. 

Publishers can use a variety of records 

to verify each publication sent at the 

Periodicals rate is distributed to a 

legitimate list of requesters, including 

‘‘Individual and bulk orders for 

subscriptions and nonsubscriber 

copies.’’ DMM 207.8.1.4b. The Postal 

Service interprets DMM 207.8.1.4b to 

encompass written proof in the form of 

email communications, telephone, or 

internet. Customer Support Ruling 

(CSR) PS–054 (207.6.4). The Postal 

Service now proposes to clarify that it 

will extend that interpretation to text 

messages as well, given the growth in 

text message communication. 

If, after public comment, the Postal 

Service decides to extend the 

interpretation in such manner, it will 

update CSR PS–054 to add procedures 

for the evaluation of text message 

requests. In addition, the Postal Service 

will make conforming changes in a new 

section E–0.4 to Appendix E of DM–204 

to notify audit bureaus of its verification 

requirements for text messages and 

throughout DM–203 to standardize 

records retention requirements and to 

add Text Message requests. Finally, the 

Postal Service plans to remove a 

reference to Form 3845 in CSR PS–054, 

which is no longer in use. 

The Postal Service also authorizes 

audit bureaus to conduct verifications of 

circulation for applications for 

Periodicals mailing privileges. DMM 

207.8.2.2. The list of audit bureaus 

authorized to verify circulation of 

Periodicals publication are listed in CSR 

PS–054. However, the Postal Service 

currently has limited visibility into each 

audit bureau’s procedures for 

verification of publisher records. 

Because disparate practices between 

different authorized audit bureaus could 

lead to inconsistent enforcement of the 

Postal Service’s verification 

requirements, the Postal Service 

proposes an update to the DMM 

explicitly reserving to the Postal Service 

the right to review each authorized 

audit bureau’s policies and procedures 

and periodically inspect each bureau for 

compliance. 

The Postal Service also proposes an 

update to DMM 207.8.1.3 to add record 

retention requirements for authorized 

audit bureaus. Publishers are required to 

keep circulation records for 3 years 

following the issue date of the 

publication. DMM 207.8.1.3. The Postal 

Service’s proposed update to DMM 

207.8.1.3 would impose a similar 

requirement on authorized audit 

bureaus and require publishers to retain 

records for paid subscribers for 12 

months. 

If the Postal Service adopts the 

proposed DMM changes, it will make 

conforming updates in CSR PS–054 and 

Handbook DM–204 (Applying for 

Periodicals Mailing Privilege) to add 

minimum requirements for acceptance 

of text (SMS and MMS) messages for the 

purpose of auditing Periodicals 

requests. The Postal Service will also 

publish an appropriate amendment to 

39 CFR part 111 to reflect these changes 

if this proposal is adopted. 

Finally, the Postal Service believes 

that its agreements with authorized 

independent audit bureaus are out of 

date and is therefore reviewing those 

agreements. Once this rulemaking is 

concluded, the Postal Service will 

decide whether to renegotiate the 

agreements to bring them up to date and 

would then publish a new list of 

authorized audit bureaus in CSR PS– 

054. 

The Postal Service proposes the 

following changes to Mailing Standards 

of the United States Postal Service, 

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), 

incorporated by reference in the Code of 

Federal Regulations. See 39 CFR 111.1. 

List of Subjects in 39 CFR Part 111 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Postal Service. 

Accordingly, 39 CFR part 111 is 

amended as follows: 

PART 111—[AMENDED] 

■ 1. The authority citation for 39 CFR 

part 111 continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 552(a); 13 U.S.C. 301– 

307; 18 U.S.C. 1692–1737; 39 U.S.C. 101, 

401–404, 414, 416, 3001–3018, 3201–3220, 

3401–3406, 3621, 3622, 3626, 3629, 3631– 

3633, 3641, 3681–3685, and 5001. 

■ 2. Revise the Mailing Standards of the 

United States Postal Service, Domestic 

Mail Manual (DMM) as follows: 

Mailing Standards of the United States 

Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual 

(DMM) 

* * * * * 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 57 / Thursday, March 24, 2022 / Proposed Rules 16703 

200 Commercial Mail Letters, Flats, 

and Parcels 

* * * * * 

207 Periodicals 

* * * * * 

8.0 Record Keeping Standards for 

Publishers 

* * * * * 

8.1 Basic Standards 

* * * * * 

[Revise 8.1.3 to read as follows:] 

8.1.3 Retention 

The publisher must keep records for 

each issue of a publication for 3 years 

from its issue date, except for 

circulation records for general or 

requester publications for which USPS 

verification of circulation is done by a 

USPS-authorized audit bureau. In 

addition, the publisher must retain 

records for paid subscribers for 12 

months following the issue date. A 

publisher whose records are verified by 

an authorized audit bureau is not 

required to keep source records of 

requests and subscriptions longer than 

required by the audit bureau, provided, 

however, the authorized audit bureau 

shall be required to retain records 

related to such requests and 

subscriptions for 3 years following each 

issue date. 

8.2 Verification 

* * * * * 

[Revise 8.2.2 to read as follows:] 

8.2.2 Authorized Verification 

USPS employees or an authorized 

audit bureau may conduct verifications 

of circulation for an application for 

Periodicals mailing privileges, reentry 

application, or other required 

circulation verification of general or 

requester publications, provided, 

however, that the Postal Service will 

have the authority to review audit 

procedures upon request. In addition, 

the Postal Service reserves the right to 

verify each audit bureau’s compliance 

with such audit procedures. The Postal 

Service shall have the authority to 

revoke any audit bureau’s authorization 

to conduct verifications if it finds such 

audit bureau has failed to follow 

approved audit procedures. 

Joshua J. Hofer, 

Attorney, Ethics & Legal Compliance. 

[FR Doc. 2022–05357 Filed 3–23–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with PROPOSALS