II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1367

To prohibit taxpayer financed mass mailings.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

AUGUST 5 (legislative day, JUNE 30), 1993

Mr. WOFFORD introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Rules and Administration

A BILL

To prohibit taxpayer financed mass mailings.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. (a) This section shall apply to mailings

4 by Senators, Senators-elect, and offices of the Senate

5 made during fiscal year 1994 and each fiscal year there6 after in addition to any other law relating to the use of

7 the franking privilege.

8 (b) For the purposes of this paragraph—

9 (1) the term ‘‘mass mailing’’—

10 (A) means, with respect to a session of

11 Congress, a mailing of five hundred or more

12 newsletters or other pieces of mail with sub-
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1 stantially identical content (whether such mail

2 is deposited singly or in bulk, or at the same

3 time or different times), but

4 (B) does not include a mailing—

5 (i) of matter in direct response to

6 communication from a person to whom the

7 matter is mailed (to the extent of two such

8 mailings) that—

9 (I) is the case of an initial re10 sponse, is mailed at any time; or

11 (II) in the case of a followup re12 sponse, is mailed not later than one

13 hundred and eighty days after the

14 date of receipt of the communication;

15 (ii) to other members of Congress or

16 to a Federal, State, or local government of17 ficial;

18 (iii) of a news release to the commu19 nications media;

20 (iv) of a town meeting or mobile office

21 notice; or

22 (v) of a Federal publication or other

23 item that is provided by the Senate to all

24 Senators or made available by the Senate
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1 for purchase by all Senators from official

2 funds specifically for distribution.

3 (c) A Senator, Senator-elect, or office of the Senate

4 may not mail a mass mailing under the frank.

5 (d) As soon as practicable after the close of each

6 quarter of a fiscal year, the chairman of the Committee

7 on Rules and Administration of the Senate shall cause to

8 be printed in the Congressional Record—

9 (1) the dollar amount of the allocation of offi10 cial mail costs made to each Senator, Senator-elect,

11 and office of the Senate for the fiscal year;

12 (2) the dollar amount of official mail costs that

13 were incurred by each Senator, Senator-elect, and

14 Senate office during that quarter; and

15 (3) the balance of the allocation for official

16 mailing costs that remain available to each Senator,

17 Senator-elect, and Senate office.

18 (e)(1) In connection with their fiscal 1995 budget

19 presentations to the Committee on Appropriations of the

20 Senate, the Secretary of the Senate and the Sergeant at

21 Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate shall submit a report

22 that describes—

23 (A) the best available and most recent informa24 tion relating to the amount of expenditures made

25 from each Senate office account for official mail ac-
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1 tivities during fiscal year 1994 as of the date of the

2 budget presentation;

3 (B) the best available and most recent informa4 tion relating to the amount of expenditures made

5 from each Senate office account for official mail ac6 tivities during fiscal year 1993 as of the date that

7 is one year earlier than the date referred to in sub8 paragraph (A); and

9 (C) the amount of any difference between the

10 amounts described in subparagraphs (A) and (B)

11 that is attributable to the operation of subsection

12 (c).

13 (2) As used in this subsection, the term ‘‘official mail

14 activities’’ includes the cost of producing, processing, and

15 mailing of official mail.

16 (f)(1) On and after the date of enactment of this Act

17 and during fiscal year 1994 and each fiscal year there18 after, no member, officer, or employee of the Senate may

19 use any appropriated funds or any equipment or other re20 sources that are paid for with appropriated funds for the

21 purpose of procuring, gaining access to, or using a mailing

22 list of any kind (including a voter registration list) that

23 is produced by any public or private entity except a mail24 ing list described in paragraph (2).
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1 (2)(A) A mailing list is described in this paragraph

2 if it is—

3 (i) a postal patron list or update as provided by

4 the United States Postal Service to be used for town

5 meeting and mobile office notices;

6 (ii) a list of members of the communications

7 media;

8 (iii) a list of Federal, State, or local government

9 officials; or

10 (iv) a list of fewer than five hundred persons

11 identifiable as having an interest in a legislative

12 topic that is different from any legislative topic iden13 tified as a subject of interest of persons named in

14 any list previously procured, accessed, or used by a

15 person (or by another member of the office of which

16 the person so procuring, accessing, or using is a

17 member) and used for the purpose of making a mail18 ing with official funds during a fiscal year.

19 (B) For the purpose of subparagraph (A)(iv), a legis20 lative topic may be considered to be different from another

21 legislative topic only if any mailing for which it is intended

22 to be used (and for which it is in fact used) has a content

23 that is not substantially identical (within the meaning of

24 subsection (b)(1)(A)) to the content of any other mailing

25 made by the office previously during the fiscal year.
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