[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1367 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,
    Section 1. (a) This section shall apply to mailings by Senators, 
Senators-elect, and offices of the Senate made during fiscal year 1994 
and each fiscal year thereafter in addition to any other law relating 
to the use of the franking privilege.
    (b) For the purposes of this paragraph--
            (1) the term ``mass mailing''--
                    (A) means, with respect to a session of Congress, a 
                mailing of five hundred or more newsletters or other 
                pieces of mail with substantially identical content 
                (whether such mail is deposited singly or in bulk, or 
                at the same time or different times), but
                    (B) does not include a mailing--
                            (i) of matter in direct response to 
                        communication from a person to whom the matter 
                        is mailed (to the extent of two such mailings) 
                        that--
                                    (I) is the case of an initial 
                                response, is mailed at any time; or
                                    (II) in the case of a followup 
                                response, is mailed not later than one 
                                hundred and eighty days after the date 
                                of receipt of the communication;
                            (ii) to other members of Congress or to a 
                        Federal, State, or local government official;
                            (iii) of a news release to the 
                        communications media;
                            (iv) of a town meeting or mobile office 
                        notice; or
                            (v) of a Federal publication or other item 
                        that is provided by the Senate to all Senators 
                        or made available by the Senate for purchase by 
                        all Senators from official funds specifically 
                        for distribution.
    (c) A Senator, Senator-elect, or office of the Senate may not mail 
a mass mailing under the frank.
    (d) As soon as practicable after the close of each quarter of a 
fiscal year, the chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration 
of the Senate shall cause to be printed in the Congressional Record--
            (1) the dollar amount of the allocation of official mail 
        costs made to each Senator, Senator-elect, and office of the 
        Senate for the fiscal year;
            (2) the dollar amount of official mail costs that were 
        incurred by each Senator, Senator-elect, and Senate office 
        during that quarter; and
            (3) the balance of the allocation for official mailing 
        costs that remain available to each Senator, Senator-elect, and 
        Senate office.
    (e)(1) In connection with their fiscal 1995 budget presentations to 
the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate, the Secretary of the 
Senate and the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate shall 
submit a report that describes--
            (A) the best available and most recent information relating 
        to the amount of expenditures made from each Senate office 
        account for official mail activities during fiscal year 1994 as 
        of the date of the budget presentation;
            (B) the best available and most recent information relating 
        to the amount of expenditures made from each Senate office 
        account for official mail activities during fiscal year 1993 as 
        of the date that is one year earlier than the date referred to 
        in subparagraph (A); and
            (C) the amount of any difference between the amounts 
        described in subparagraphs (A) and (B) that is attributable to 
        the operation of subsection (c).
    (2) As used in this subsection, the term ``official mail 
activities'' includes the cost of producing, processing, and mailing of 
official mail.
    (f)(1) On and after the date of enactment of this Act and during 
fiscal year 1994 and each fiscal year thereafter, no member, officer, 
or employee of the Senate may use any appropriated funds or any 
equipment or other resources that are paid for with appropriated funds 
for the purpose of procuring, gaining access to, or using a mailing 
list of any kind (including a voter registration list) that is produced 
by any public or private entity except a mailing list described in 
paragraph (2).
    (2)(A) A mailing list is described in this paragraph if it is--
            (i) a postal patron list or update as provided by the 
        United States Postal Service to be used for town meeting and 
        mobile office notices;
            (ii) a list of members of the communications media;
            (iii) a list of Federal, State, or local government 
        officials; or
            (iv) a list of fewer than five hundred persons identifiable 
        as having an interest in a legislative topic that is different 
        from any legislative topic identified as a subject of interest 
        of persons named in any list previously procured, accessed, or 
        used by a person (or by another member of the office of which 
        the person so procuring, accessing, or using is a member) and 
        used for the purpose of making a mailing with official funds 
        during a fiscal year.
    (B) For the purpose of subparagraph (A)(iv), a legislative topic 
may be considered to be different from another legislative topic only 
if any mailing for which it is intended to be used (and for which it is 
in fact used) has a content that is not substantially identical (within 
the meaning of subsection (b)(1)(A)) to the content of any other 
mailing made by the office previously during the fiscal year.

                                 <all>