[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1547 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1547

 To eliminate the franking privilege for the House of Representatives, 
to establish a spending allowance for postage for official mail of the 
House of Representatives and to limit the amount and type of mail sent 
              by Members of the House of Representatives.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 31, 1993

 Mr. Nussle (for himself, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, and Mr. Inglis of 
   South Carolina) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
 jointly to the Committees on House Administration and Post Office and 
                             Civil Service

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To eliminate the franking privilege for the House of Representatives, 
to establish a spending allowance for postage for official mail of the 
House of Representatives and to limit the amount and type of mail sent 
              by Members of the House of Representatives.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Citizen Representative Reform Act 
Use a Stamp Provision''.

SEC. 2. ABOLITION OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE FOR THE HOUSE OF 
              REPRESENTATIVES.

    Notwithstanding title 39, United States Code, title III of the 
Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1991, or any other provision of 
law, the franking privilege is abolished with respect to the House of 
Representatives.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF SPENDING ALLOWANCE FOR COSTS OF POSTAGE OF THE 
              HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

    (a) In General.--In lieu of the Official Mail Allowance established 
by section 311 (e) of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1991 
(2 U.S.C. 59e(e)), there is established a spending allowance for 
postage for official mail of the House of Representatives. The spending 
allowance shall be available to Members in the same manner and to the 
same extent as the Official Mail Allowance was available under such 
section, except for the following--
            (1) the spending allowance shall be used to purchase stamps 
        and other postage rather than to pay for mail sent under the 
        frank.
            (2) Members of the House of Representatives are only 
        permitted to use postage purchased through the spending 
        allowance to respond once to a constituent inquiry, conduct 
        routine business including but not limited to press releases 
        and correspondence with Federal agencies and send one district-
        wide mailing during the first session of a Congress.
            (3) Officers and employees of the House of Representatives 
        shall purchase stamps and other postage through their office's 
        official expense account.
    (b) Metered Mail.--The Postmaster of the House of Representatives 
shall take such actions as may be necessary to provide for use of 
postage meters to record the cost and volume of mail paid for from the 
spending allowance for postage.
    (c) Transfers.--All amounts that, but for the enactment of this 
Act, would have been available to pay for franked mail of the House of 
Representatives shall be transferred to the spending allowance for 
postage.

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