At press time, the House Rules Committee was scheduled to vote on whether an amendment that would give the U.S. Postal Service $500 million would go forward. The postal service would receive the money up front to begin paying for mail sanitation equipment.
The vote is for an amendment that would be tacked on to an appropriations bill for the Defense Department.
Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI) last week proposed the amendment to HR 3338, the Defense Dept. appropriations bill for 2002, to serve as the first installment on the $3 billion the USPS said it needed to procure and install equipment that would rid the mail system of biological agents such as anthrax.
The Direct Marketing Association urged the Committee to allow this amendment to be attached to the bill before it reaches the House floor for a vote Wednesday.
Gene Del Polito, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, echoed the DMA’s sentiments, said he doesn’t have much confidence that the amendment will pass Rules Committee.
Dave Sirota, a staffer with the House Appropriations Committee, said this bill, possibly the strongest House measure at the moment, had a one in four chance of clearing the Rules Committee.
Meanwhile, separate proposals for funding USPS mail sanitation equipment are pending in the U.S. Senate.
Network
