Congressional Official Mail Costs

Matthew Eric Glassman
Analyst on the Congress

The congressional franking privilege allows Members of Congress to send official mail via the U.S. Postal Service at government expense. This report provides information and analysis on the costs of franked mail in the House of Representatives and Senate. 

In FY2009, total expenditures on official mail were $16,793,101. House official mail costs ($14,274,081) were 85.0% of the total, whereas Senate official mail costs ($2,519,020) were 15.0% of the total. In FY2008, overall expenditures on official mail were $32,613,096. House official mail costs ($30,237,342) were 92.7% of the total, whereas Senate mail costs ($2,375,754) were 7.3% of the total. 

These expenditures continue an historical pattern of Congress spending less on official mail costs during non-election years than during election years (Figure 3). However, analysis of monthly data on official mail costs indicates that, due to the structure of the fiscal year calendar, comparisons of election year and non-election year mailing data tend to overstate the effect of pre-election increases in mail costs, because it also captures the effect of a large spike in mail costs from December of the previous calendar year. 

The analysis demonstrates that between FY2000 and FY2009, higher official mail costs in evennumbered fiscal years occurred for two reasons: a general increase in monthly mail costs prior to the pre-election prohibited period, and a significant spike in costs during December of oddnumbered years. Both increases were largely the result of an increase in the number of House Members sending mass mailings during those months. 

During the past 20 years, franking reform efforts reduced franking expenditures in both evennumbered and odd-numbered years. Even-numbered year franking expenditures have been reduced by almost 70% from $113.4 million in FY1988 to $32.6 million in FY2008, while oddnumbered- year franking expenditures have been reduced by over 80% from $89.5 million in FY1989 to $16.8 million in FY2007. House mail costs have decreased from a high of $77.9 million in FY1988 to $14.2 million in FY2009. The Senate has dramatically reduced its costs, from $43.6 million in FY1984 to $2.5 million in FY2009.


Date of Report: August 16, 2010
Number of Pages: 12
Order Number: RL34188
Price: $29.95

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