Standing Rules of the Senate
RULE XL
FRANKING PRIVILEGE AND RADIO AND TELEVISION STUDIOS
1. A Senator or an individual who is a candidate for nomination
for election, or election, to the Senate may not use the frank for any mass
mailing (as defined in section 3210(a)(6)(E)2 of title 39, United States Code)
if such mass mailing is mailed at or delivered to any postal facility less than
sixty days immediately before the date of any primary or general election (whether
regular, special, or runoff) in which the Senator is a candidate for public
office or the individual is a candidate for Senator, unless the candidacy of
the Senator in such election is uncontested.
2. A Senator shall use only official funds of the Senate, including
his official Senate allowances, to purchase paper, to print, or to prepare any
mass mailing material which is to be sent out under the frank.
3. (a) When a Senator disseminates information under the frank
by a mass mailing (as defined in section 3210(a)(6)(E) of title 39, United States
Code), the Senator shall register quarterly with the Secretary of the Senate
such mass mailings. Such registration shall be made by filing with the Secretary
a copy of the matter mailed and providing, on a form supplied by the Secretary,
a description of the group or groups of persons to whom the mass mailing was
mailed.
(b) The Secretary of the Senate shall promptly make available
for public inspection and copying a copy of the mail matter registered, and
a description of the group or groups of persons to whom the mass mailing was
mailed.
4. Nothing in this rule shall apply to any mailing under the frank
which is (a) in direct response to inquiries or requests from persons to whom
the matter is mailed; (b) addressed to colleagues in Congress or to government
officials (whether Federal, State, or local); or (c) consists entirely of news
releases to the communications media.
5. The Senate computer facilities shall not be used (a) to store,
maintain, or otherwise process any lists or categories of lists of names and
addresses identifying the individuals included in such lists as campaign workers
or contributors, as members of a political party, or by any other partisan political
designation, (b) to produce computer printouts except as authorized by user
guides approved by the Committee on Rules and Administration, or (c) to produce
mailing labels for mass mailings, or computer tapes and discs, for use other
than in service facilities maintained and operated by the Senate or under contract
to the Senate. The Committee on Rules and Administration shall prescribe such
regulations not inconsistent with the purposes of this paragraph as it determines
necessary to carry out such purposes.
6. (a) The radio and television studios provided by the Senate
or by the House of Representatives may not be used by a Senator or an individual
who is a candidate for nomination for election, or election, to the Senate less
than sixty days immediately before the date of any primary or general election
(whether regular, special, or runoff) in which that Senator is a candidate for
public office or that individual is a candidate for Senator, unless the candidacy
of the Senator in such election is uncontested.
(b) This paragraph shall not apply if the facilities are to be
used at the request of, and at the expense of, a licensed broadcast organization
or an organization exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1954.
|