Politics as Usual

High among the favorite perks of Congress is the franked mail privilege, which allows postage-free communication with constituents. Franked mail makes sense; the people’s representatives shouldn’t have to pay to conduct official business with the people. The trouble is that franking isn’t confined just to necessary mail. At present, members of Congress may also send out six unsolicited “newsletters” each year. The cost for this subsidized program of political self-promotion exceeds $100 million.

Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Ca.), is one of those who wants to end this extravagance. He sponsored legislation to eliminate the newsletters and spend the savings on a program to help drug-addicted pregnant women. Wilson hopes to be elected governor next year, a prospect that may have had something to do with his advocacy on this issue. Motives aside, Wilson’s idea was perceived by his colleagues to command broad popular appeal. The Senate endorsed it 83-8; the House, by 245-137.

And then the measure reached a conference committee, where cooler political calculations prevailed. As part of a $1.9-billion package to run Congress next year, the committee voted$54.5 million for the House’s newsletter account and $29.3 million for the Senate’s, along with another $31.7 million to pay mass-mailing expenses for the rest of this year. The one reform made was to cut the number of franked newsletters down to three.

Supporters of the mail ban noted that more than 1,000 babies are born each day in the United States with substance-abuse symptoms. Eliminating the newsletters would free the money to increase the pregnant addict program tenfold. But we live in an era of limits and tough choices, as they say in Congress. The members of the conference committee have now made their choice. Whether they can morally justify it is another matter.