Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield
such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from Surfside, Texas (Mr.
PAUL).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
1999 Ron Paul 75:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I rise with
some bit of ambivalence with this rule,
but I will support the rule. I was concerned
about a special issue with the
Post Office and was hoping that we
could address this in detail, and that
has to do with the regulations that I
consider very onerous and very maliciously
placed on private mailboxes,
the Commercial Receiving Agencies. I
was very hopeful that we could deal
with that. But it appears we will have
another chance to do that at a later
date.
1999 Ron Paul 75:2 I have a House joint resolution under
the Congressional Review Act, H.J.
Res. 55. If that were to pass, we could
rescind all those regulations. Currently,
it is my understanding that
these regulations have been put on
hold. They will not go into effect soon.
But the problem still exists, and I see
it as a serious problem.
1999 Ron Paul 75:3 First, let me talk about the Post Office.
The Post Office is a true monopoly.
In the free market, there are no
true monopolies. Only government can
allow a true monopoly.
1999 Ron Paul 75:4 We do have enough freedom in this
country to some degree to offer competition
to even this monopoly of the
Post Office. By doing this, the private
post offices have been set up to give additional
service and privacy to many of
our citizens, and they are well used.
1999 Ron Paul 75:5 But now the Post Office sees this as
a competition because they are providing
services that the Post Office
cannot or will not provide. So instead
of dealing with this, either providing
legalized competition in the Post Office
or providing these same services,
instead, the Post Office has issued
these onerous regulations to attack
these customers.
1999 Ron Paul 75:6 They are forcing these private mailbox
operators to develop profiles on
every customer, have double identification,
and then make this information
available to the public and to the Post
Office for no good reason.
1999 Ron Paul 75:7 When I first got involved in this, I
did not know which constituencies
would be interested in this issue. But
one thing that I have discovered is that
many of those women who need privacy
will use private post offices to avoid
the husband or some other individual
who may be stalking them. They have
been writing to me with a great deal of
concern about what these regulations
will do.
1999 Ron Paul 75:8 Also, it is a great cost to these operators
as well as to all the customers.
The Post Office would mandate that a
special address be placed on each piece
of mail, indicating that they are receiving
mail at one of these private
post offices. This costs a lot of money.
There will be a lot of mail returned. If
these regulations had gone into effect
this week, as had been planned, a lot of
mail, to the tune of hundreds of thousands
of pieces, if not millions, would
have been returned to the senders, and
they would not have been permitted to
be delivered.
1999 Ron Paul 75:9 I think this is tragic. I think it has
to be dealt with. I am disappointed
that we cannot do much with it today,
but I know there is a growing support
in this country and in this Chamber for
doing something about this problem.
1999 Ron Paul 75:10 We as a Congress have the ability,
and the authority, to undo regulations.
For too long, we have allowed our regulatory
bodies to write law, and we do
nothing about it. Since 1994, we have
had this authority, but we never use it.
This is a perfect example of a time that
we ought to come in and protect the
people, try to neutralize this government
monopoly and help these people
who deserve this type of protection and
privacy.
1999 Ron Paul 75:11 Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman
from Maryland (Mr. HOYER).
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I want to
say to the gentleman from Texas that
I think he raises the question that is a
good question; and it should be raised,
should be looked at.
It will not come as a surprise to him
that we do not agree on all the aspects
of what he has said, but he certainly
raises an issue that ought to be focused
on. I know in talking to the gentleman
from Arizona (Chairman KOLBE) that
he shares that concern. I want to assure
the gentleman that both the gentleman
from Arizona (Mr. KOLBE) and
myself will be looking at this.
Furthermore, as the gentleman may
know, the Postal Department has made
very substantial changes to its initially
sponsored resolution through the
efforts of the organizations that the
gentleman from Texas talked to and
himself and others who raised these
issues with the department, so that
they are moving to ensure greater privacy
and protection to the individuals
of which the gentleman spoke.
The gentleman from Texas raises a
legitimate issue. I certainly intend to,
along with the gentleman from Arizona
(Mr. KOLBE), look at that further. I
thank the gentleman for his comments.
1999 Ron Paul 75:12 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate
the comments of the gentleman from
Maryland.
