PLEASE NOTE:

The figures above reflect only those newspapers received through the facilities of the
U.S. Postal Service. This represents only a small fraction of the total number of such
periodicals received from organizations and other sources which are delivered, in bulk,
directly to the Office of the Postmaster.

POSTMASTER'S OPENING REMARKS

Mr. ROTA. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, again it is an honor for me to appear before the subcommittee in support of appropriations for the Office of the Postmaster. Appropriations requested for the Postmaster for fiscal 1993 is $6,020,000, representing an increase of $1,643,000 over last year to cover longevity, salary increases, meritorial promotions, cost of living, along with 19 new positions resulting to new machinery in the Office of the Postmaster.

Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee, mail volume last year was drastically reduced over 100 million. Incoming mail was down over 100 million pieces, down to 175 million as compared to that of 253.7 million in 1990.

Mr. LEWIS. What was it in 1989?

Mr. ROTA. Mr. Chairman and Members, may I include for the record the entire chart which provides mail volume going back to when I was first elected in 1972 to the present time?

Mr. LEWIS. Okay. Why don't you just read 1989 for me. Mr. ROTA. 1989 was 262,300,000 incoming mail, 372,000,000 outgoing mail.

Mr. LEWIS. I guess the point of that was to say that we know about this historical surge one year versus another, and the pattern seems to be

SIGNIFICANCE OF INCOMING MAIL FIGURES

Mr. ROTA. Do you have another copy of that? Mail volumes play a very important part in the Member's office. A Member who died recently and I was here, we used to do a little study. We would go over through the years and study what part incoming mail really played in the election of a Member of Congress. Just prior to the election he would ask me, based on the incoming mail, "who do you

If a Member's incoming mail is reduced drastically, you can almost guarantee he is out. Now, a Republican Member, heard me testify up here one day, and went back to his office.

Well, later on that afternoon he came down to my office and he was furious. He said, "Where in the world did you get that darn figure?" I said, "That is the actual figure, sir. I will show you how we compiled it, the whole bit and everything.'

He said, "My office tells me my mail is down, there is nothing there at all." I said, "Sir, I hate to say this, but you are not coming back next time." He got furious. I mean, kicked my desk, walked upstairs, sent his AA down to see me, and we talked about it, and then he came down a couple days later, and he wanted to see records and see what happened. I went through it with him. The night of the election he found out through my staff or someplace, that I was back home voting, and he called me around midnight. He said, "Had I not met with you, I would not have been reelected." He said, "Had I not got with you to realize the importance of what was happening with my mail, why it had dropped off, I would not have managed to turn things around and get reelected." He is still in Congress today.

Mr. LEWIS. That is to suggest, for the record, that the volume of our use of the franked mail is an excellent re-election device, which is not necessarily what it was meant for originally?

Mr. ROTA. I didn't say that part.

Mr. LEWIS. I know you didn't. That is just my conclusion.

Mr. ROTA. The incoming mail plays a more important part than that of the outgoing mail. It shows that the people when upset, don't write. The reason—

OUTGOING MAIL FIGURES

Mr. LEWIS. One of my Democratic colleagues from California said to me one day, Jerry, I have yet to meet the Member who lost because he mailed too much. That might very well affect his volume of incoming mail as well.

Mr. ROTA. The reduction in the mail volumes last year says one thing. The economy is bad. The mass mailers aren't mailing. If you will look, most of those mass mailers require payment of some type of dues to get that mail here. When the economy is bad and people have to pay dues, whether it be the Social Security or whatever issues, mailings are reduced, and that accounts for a lot of the reduction also in the outgoing mail.

The outgoing mail has been reduced by half. Incoming mail figures are on the calendar year basis, the outgoing mail on a fiscal year basis, right, Ray?

That is right. Because keeping in mind the whole thing, that letter that comes in here still remains the cheapest means of communication with Members of Congress. Constituents may never get to see their Congressman, they may never be able to get to talk to him, but they can drop him a letter. I don't know why, the first thing when people get upset, you would think the mail was going to get heavy, that you would receive more and more and more