HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Monday, June 7, 1999
1999 Ron Paul 55:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, because this is
small business appreciation week I would like
to remind my colleagues of the importance of
enacting HJ Res 55, the Mailbox Privacy Protection
Act. HJ Res 55 repeals recently enacted
Post Office regulations requiring Commercial
Mail Receiving Agencies (CMRAs) to
collect personal information about their customers,
such as their name, address, social
security number, and photograph. These regulations
not only force small businesses to intrude
into their customer’s privacy, they could
impose costs as high as $1 billion on small
businesses during the initial six-month compliance
period. The long term costs of this rule
are incalculable, but could conceivably reach
several billion dollars in the first few years.
Some small businesses may even be forced
into bankruptcy.
1999 Ron Paul 55:2 Businesses like Mailboxes, etc., must turn
the collected information over to the Post Office.
Mr. Speaker, what business in America
would not leap at the chance to force their
competitors to provide them with their
customer names, addresses, social security numbers,
and photographs? The Post Office could
even mail advertisements to those who use
private mail boxes explaining how their privacy
would not be invaded if they used a government
box.
1999 Ron Paul 55:3 It is ironic that this regulation comes at a
time when the Post Office is getting into an
ever increasing number of enterprises not directly
related to mail delivery. So, while the
Postal Service uses its monopoly on first-class
mail to compete with the private sector, it
works to make life more difficult for its competitors
in the field of mail delivery.
1999 Ron Paul 55:4 Mr. Speaker, Congress must do more than
talk about how it appreciates small business,
it must work to lift the burden of big government
from America’s job-creating small businesses.
Passing HJ Res 55 and protecting
Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies from the
Post Offices’ costly and anti-competitive regulations
would be a great place to start.
Notes:
Ron Paul discusses the topic of this statement elsewhere:
1999 Ron Paul Chapter 52
and
2000 Ron Paul Chapter 15
1999 Ron Paul 55:3
an ever increasing number probably should be hyphenated:
an ever-increasing number.
