WASHINGTON – Today, in response to the outrage over the Paso Robles Post Office being forced to take down photos honoring local military men and women’s service and sacrifice, Congressman McCarthy introduced a Congressional resolution to reaffirm the right of the community and servicemembers’ families to display those photos in their local post offices. (See attachment for a copy of the introduced resolution)

After introducing the bill, Congressman McCarthy got to work to gather support from his colleagues to bring this bill to the floor quickly and issued the following statement:

“To build on the work that we have already done in Paso Robles, I am working to pass this common sense resolution that reaffirms that post offices across America can honor our troops.  As Americans, we are blessed by those brave men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform in service and sacrifice to our country. That is why so many of us were shocked by a bureaucratic regulation that forced the Paso Robles Post Office to take down photos of our local troops serving abroad.

“Like Paso Robles does every year for Pioneer Day, the community united and voiced its desire to have the photos back up. I was proud to join in that effort and happy to see those photos placed back up so quickly. While the U.S. Postal Service reinterpreted its regulations to allow the photos back up, this resolution acts as a further check and balance to help ensure this doesn’t happen again at our post office, as well as those across the country.”

For more than three years, photographs of local troops deployed abroad were proudly displayed in the Paso Robles Post Office.  However, after receiving a complaint about the photographs, local postal officials had the pictures removed on October 19, 2007, stating that the photos violated postal regulations.  The Deputy Postmaster General intervened and overturned this decision, citing a different postal regulation. Three days later, on Monday, October 22, 2007, the photographs of the soldiers were put back up in the post office. Today, to help ensure this doesn’t happen again, Congressman McCarthy introduced a Congressional resolution that:

(1)   Commends all U.S. Post Offices that currently honor local military men and women’s sacrifice by displaying their photos; 

(2)   Reaffirms the Deputy Postmaster General’s decision is correct because it is in line with existing postal regulations to honor U.S. military men and women by displaying their photos in U.S. Post Offices; and 

(3)   Urges U.S. Post Offices to reserve or designate space in the facilities for photographs of local soldiers if the community or military servicemembers’ families want their pictures displayed.

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