Number: RS21025
Title: The Postal Revenue Forgone Appropriation: Overview and Current Issues
Authors: Kevin R.Kosar, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: The Revenue Forgone Reform Act of 1993 eliminated appropriations to support reduced rates for non-profits, transferring the costs to other mailers. The act retained free postage only for the blind and for overseas absentee balloting materials. Appropriations for subsidizing that narrow purpose since then have been in the range of $60 million to $100 million each year. Most of this has lately been provided as an advance appropriation for the next fiscal year, a practice the Bush Administration termed "misleading" in 2001. The 1993 act also provided for an annual payment of $29 million each year for 42 years to pay off the debt accumulated in the early 1990s. Congress appropriated this amount every year from 1994 through 2006, even though the President's FY2005 and FY2006 budgets proposed to eliminate the payment.
Pages: 6
Date: September 21, 2006