I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2439
To provide for the establishment of an Official Mass Mailing Allowance
for Members of the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 9, 1997
Mr. CASTLE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Oversight
A BILL
To provide for the establishment of an Official Mass Mailing
Allowance for Members of the House of Representatives,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Franked Mail Savings
Act’’.
SEC. 2. OFFICIAL MASS MAILING ALLOWANCE.
Subsection (f) of section 311 of the Legislative
Branch Appropriations Act, 1991 (2 U.S.C. 59e(f)) is
amended to read as follows:
‘‘(f)(1) There is established in the House of Rep-
resentatives an Official Mass Mailing Allowance for Mem-
bers of the House of Representatives.
‘‘(2) The Official Mass Mailing Allowance of a Mem-
ber of the House of Representatives—
‘‘(A) shall be available only for postage for any
mass mailing sent by such Member as franked mail;
‘‘(B) shall be the sole source of funding for any
such postage; and
‘‘(C) shall be available, in a session of Con-
gress, in an amount not to exceed the total amount
allocated to the Official Mail Allowance of such
Member in such session.
‘‘(3) No amount may be transferred to or from the
Official Mass Mailing Allowance of a Member of the
House of Representatives (including as described in the
parenthetical matter in subsection (a)(2)(A)), except as
provided in subsection (e)(3)(B).
‘‘(4) For purposes of subsection (b), the Official Mass
Mailing Allowance of (and any mass mailing sent by) a
Member of the House of Representatives shall be treated
separately from the Official Mail Allowance of (and any
other official mail sent by) such Member.
‘‘(5)(A) Otherwise applicable provisions of law relat-
ing to mass mailings sent by a Member of (or Member-
elect to) the House of Representatives shall continue to
govern such mass mailings—
‘‘(i) except that—
‘‘(I) for purposes of carrying out those
other provisions of law, the term ‘mass mailing’
shall have the meaning given it under para-
graph (8); and
‘‘(II) a mass mailing may not be sent if it
would be postmarked during any session that
begins in an even-numbered calendar year, sub-
ject to subparagraph (B); and
‘‘(ii) except as otherwise provided in this sub-
section.
‘‘(B) Nothing in subclause (II) of subparagraph
(A)(i) shall be considered to preclude the mailing of any
mail matter—
‘‘(i) sent after the Tuesday next after the 1st
Monday in November of such year, and any mass
mailing described in section 3210(a)(6)(B) of title
39, United States Code; or
‘‘(ii) which relates to an emergency or disaster
declared by the President, if—
‘‘(I) the mailing is sent within 60 days
after the emergency or disaster is declared;
‘‘(II) the recipients of the mailing are lo-
cated in a congressional district any portion of
which is within (or adjacent to) an area in-
cluded in the President’s declaration;
‘‘(III) the mailing includes not more than
3 references to the Member (excluding any ref-
erence appearing as the frank, consisting of the
signature and name at the end of the mailing,
or otherwise specified in regulations of the
House Commission on Congressional Mailing
Standards), and does not include any picture,
sketch, or other likeness of the Member;
‘‘(IV) the mailing complies with clauses (i)
and (ii)(II) of section 3210(a)(6)(A) of title 39,
United States Code; and
‘‘(V) the mailing relates solely to the emer-
gency or disaster.
‘‘(6) A Member of the House of Representatives
shall—
‘‘(A) before making any mass mailing, submit a
sample of the mail matter involved to the House
Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards for
an advisory opinion as to whether such proposed
mailing is in compliance with applicable provisions of
law, rule, or regulation; and
‘‘(B) before making any mailing of substantially
identical mail which totals 250 pieces or less (but
more than 50) in the same session, and which in
every other respect meets the definition of a mass
mailing (determined disregarding the exclusion
under subclause (II) of paragraph (8)(A)(i)), submit
a sample of the mail matter involved to such Com-
mission.
‘‘(7)(A) The regulations prescribed in connection with
subsection (a)(3) shall be amended to require, in addition
to the information otherwise required to be included in the
quarterly report referred to therein, a statement of—
‘‘(i) costs charged against the Official Mass
Mailing Allowance of each Member; and
‘‘(ii) the number of pieces of mail in any mass
mailing sent by a Member.
‘‘(B)(i) The House Commission on Congressional
Mailing Standards shall by regulation establish procedures
under which there shall be made available to the public
for review and copying any matter submitted to the Com-
mission under paragraph (6). Any copying under the pre-
ceding sentence shall be at the expense of the person who
requests the copying.
‘‘(ii) Under the regulations, mail matter shall be
made available within 2 weeks after the date on which it
is requested in accordance with applicable procedures.
‘‘(8) For the purpose of this subsection—
‘‘(A) the term ‘mass mailing’ means, with re-
spect to a session of Congress, any mailing of news-
letters or other pieces of mail with substantially
identical content (whether such mail is deposited sin-
gly or in bulk, or at the same time or different
times), totaling more than 250 pieces in that ses-
sion, except that such term does not include—
‘‘(i)(I) any mailing of matter in direct re-
sponse to a communication from a person to
whom the matter is mailed; or
‘‘(II) a single follow-up to any such direct
response, if it is made before the end of the
Congress in which the direct response was
made, it occurs within 6 weeks after any signifi-
cant congressional action (as defined by the
House Commission on Congressional Mailing
Standards) on the subject matter involved, and
it complies with any requirements which would
be applicable to it under clause (i) or (ii)(II) of
section 3210(a)(6)(A) of title 39, United States
Code, if it were a mass mailing;