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B-217555 1 (1985-03-20)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadrqo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON DC 20548 B-217555 March 20, 1985 The Honorable Fortney H. Stark House of Representatives Dear Mr. Stark: Your letter of December 27, 1984, asked us to investigate a possible violation of the penalty mail provisions by the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Louis 0. Giuffrida. Your request arises in connection with a holiday greeting letter you received from Mr. Giuffrida in a penalty cover. The General Accounting Office has no jurisdiction over what may be transmitted as penalty mail. B-128938, January 10, 1979; see 24 Comp. Dec. 111 (1917). These standards are set by the Postmaster General. However, since appropriations pay the postage on penalty mail items (not to mention the cost of pre- paring the items themselves), an agency head responsible for interpreting and enforcing the Postal Service's rules on penalty mail use must apply those rules with reference to Comptroller General decisions. Because the agency head is the mailer in this case, we think it is appropriate to offer you our independent analysis of the situation, even though we have no official role in determining the issue or in enforcing the penalty for misuse of penalty mail. For the reasons explained below we think the holiday greeting letter was a violation of our longstanding rule against sending Christmas cards with appropriated funds, and consequently, an improper use of penalty mail. Penalty mail is authorized by 39 U.S.C. SS 3201-09 (1982). The permissible contents of penalty mail are specified in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) (incorporated by reference, 39 C.F.R. S 111.1 (1984)). The Manual provides that penalty mail is strictly limited to: * * * official mail sent by agencies of the United States Government containing matter relating exclusively to the business of the Gov- ernment of the United States * * *. DMM S 137.21, as amended, 49 Fed. Reg. 33567 (1984). In addition, the DMM has traditionally included an express pro- hibition on mailing Christmas caras as penalty mail. See, e , DMM § 137.22a (1983) (copy enclosed). However, the Postal Service amended the Manual in August of 1984. Agency heaas are now required to issue guidelines governing:

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