[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 198 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 198

   To limit the types of commercial nonpostal services which may be 
              offered by the United States Postal Service.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 7, 1997

   Mr. Hunter (for himself, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Packard, Mr. Cox of 
 California, Mr. Riggs, Mr. Bartlett of Maryland, Mr. Young of Alaska, 
Mr. McCrery, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Livingston, 
 Mr. Coble, and Mr. Combest) introduced the following bill; which was 
      referred to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To limit the types of commercial nonpostal services which may be 
              offered by the United States Postal Service.

    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 ``Postal Service Core Business Act of 
1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the United States Postal Service is a quasi-government 
        corporation and receives certain benefits and privileges 
        pursuant to that status;
            (2) the United States Postal Service has a statutory 
        monopoly on the delivery of letters;
            (3) economic development should be promoted through small 
        business enhancement; and
            (4) the United States Postal Service has recently entered 
        into direct competition with private companies in the offering 
        of commercial nonpostal services.

SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON ACTIVITIES ALLOWABLE.

    (a) Postal Policy.--Section 101 of title 39, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(h)(1) The Postal Service may not make available to the public 
any commercial nonpostal service except if or to the extent that such 
service was made available nationwide by the Postal Service to the 
public (whether under the Domestic Mail Manual or otherwise) as of 
January 1, 1994.
    ``(2) For the purposes of this subsection, the term `commercial 
nonpostal service' includes such services as volume retail 
photocopying, packaging services (including gift-wrapping services), 
notary public services, and the sale of office supplies.
    ``(3) Nothing in this subsection shall be considered--
            ``(A) to affect any governmental function or services in 
        support of any governmental function; or
            ``(B) to be applicable to the extent contrary to statute or 
        any treaty or international agreement.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section shall take 
effect 4 months after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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