WASHINGTON — A bipartisan Senate duo is aiming to reduce the influx of political mail to households by cutting off a key federal subsidy that boosts Republican and Democratic party committees.
Currently, national and state committees for the major political parties can get the same 40-60% discount rate nonprofits enjoy for mailers sent through the US Postal Service. Third parties don’t get the perk.
New legislation, dubbed the Ending Subsidies for Political Junk Mail Act, which was proposed by Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), would force the GOP and Democratic party committees to pay the normal rate, The Post has learned.
“No more welfare for Washington consultants,” Ernst told The Post. “If the American people must pay full price to send a Christmas card that their families actually want, then political parties should have to pay full price to send junk mail that nobody wants.”
Last year, over 2.3 billion pieces of political mail inundated households during the contentious 2024 presidential election cycle, according to data from the Postal Regulatory Commission.
The US Postal Service is notorious for bleeding money, losing $9.5 billion last year and $6.5 billion in 2023 due to retiree pension requirements and a dip in mail volume since 2006.
“Especially as the U.S. Postal Service loses billions every year, there is absolutely no reason to subsidize spam that will wind up in the trash,” Ernst added.
The official Republican and Democratic campaign arms for the House and Senate also qualify for the Postal Service discount.
Certain voting registration officials also get the perk.
The two senators also noted that while the party apparatuses get the discount reserved for nonprofits, everyday citizens trying to contact their elected officials via the mail receive no such break.
“Political campaigns should not be getting government discounts to flood our mailboxes with election materials,” Masto said, adding that the legislation “will provide Americans relief from junk mail.”
Besides select national and state political committees, the Post Office gives the nonprofit discount rate to certain religious, educational, fraternal, agricultural, labor, veterans, scientific and charitable organizations.
The legislation comes just before the 2026 midterm election cycle heats up, in which both parties are poised to inundate homes with political junk mail.
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