Darrell Issa: “Senate bill 384, introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein from the great State of California, would extend the authority…”

“Senate bill 384, introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein from the great State of California, would extend the authority of the United States Postal Service to issue semipostal stamps to raise funds for breast cancer research. The bill enjoys cosponsorship on both sides of the aisle; 66 Senators have cosponsored it, and my committee has voted it out unanimously. Senate bill 384 is very simple yet important that we pass, and pass before the end of the year. Senate bill 384 will allow the United States Postal Service to continue to sell special postage stamps that generate funds used for breast cancer research. In 1997 President Clinton signed Public Law 105-41, known as the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act. The law authorizes the Postal Service to sell, for the first time, a special semipostal stamp for first-class mail. Under the law, the United States Postal Service sells this stamp at a price that is above the standard first-class mail rate. Buyers willingly buy this, knowing that this is helping stamp out breast cancer. After accounting for administrative costs, the Postal Service then transfers surplus funds to the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense for breast cancer research. Today the sale of each 55 cent stamp generates 11 cents to go toward breast cancer research.…”