View all text of Chapter 16 [§ 501 - § 506]
§ 501. House Communications Standards Commission
(a) Establishment; designation
(b) Membership; political party representation; Chairman; vacancies; quorum
(c) Assistance and use of personnel, including chief counsel, of Committee on Post Office and Civil Service of the House
(d) Advisory opinions or consultations respecting franked mail for persons entitled to franking privilege; franking privilege regulations
(1) The Commission shall provide guidance, assistance, advice, and counsel, through advisory opinions or consultations, in connection with the mailing or contemplated mailing of franked mail under section 3210, 3211, 3212, 3213(2), 3218, or 3219, in connection with the operation of section 3215, of title 39, and in connection with any other Federal law (other than any law which imposes any criminal penalty) or any rule of the House of Representatives relating to franked mail, upon the request of any Member of the House or Member-elect, Resident Commissioner or Resident Commissioner-elect, Delegate or Delegate-elect, any former Member of the House or former Member-elect, Resident Commissioner or Resident Commissioner-elect, Delegate or Delegate-elect, any surviving spouse of any of the foregoing (or any individual designated by the Clerk of the House under section 3218 of title 39), or any other House official or former House official, entitled to send mail as franked mail under any of those sections. The Commission shall prescribe regulations governing the proper use of the franking privilege under those sections by such persons.
(2) In addition to the guidance, assistance, advice, and counsel described in paragraph (1), the Commission shall provide—
(A) guidance, assistance, advice, and counsel, through advisory opinions or consultations, in connection with any law and with any rule or regulation of the House of Representatives governing the dissemination of mass communications other than franked mail; and
(B) guidance, assistance, advice, and counsel in connection with any law and with any rule or regulation of the House of Representatives governing the official span of other official communications of any quantity, whether solicited or unsolicited.
(e) Complaint of franked mail violations; investigation; notice and hearing; conclusiveness of findings; decision of Commission; judicial review; reference of certain violations to Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the House for appropriate action and enforcement; administrative procedure regulations
(f) Procedural considerations; sessions, place and time; subpenas, issuance and service; oaths and affirmations; testimony; printing and binding; expenditures; organizational and procedural regulations; majority assent
(g) Property of Commission; records; voting record; location of records, data, and files
(h) Definition of mass communicationIn this section, the term “mass communication” means a mass mailing described in section 3210(a)(6)(E) of title 39 or any other unsolicited communication of substantially identical span which is transmitted to 500 or more persons in a session of Congress, as provided under regulations of the Commission, except that such term does not include—
(1) any communication from an individual described in subsection (d) to another individual described in subsection (d), a Senator, or any Federal, State, local, or Tribal government official;
(2) any news release to the communications media;
(3) any such mass mailing or unsolicited communication made in direct response to a communication from a person to whom the mass mailing or unsolicited communication was transmitted; or
(4) in the case of any such unsolicited communication which is transmitted in a digital format, a communication for which the cost of the span is less than a threshold amount established under regulations of the House Communications Standards Commission.
(Pub. L. 93–191, § 5, Dec. 18, 1973, 87 Stat. 742; Pub. L. 93–255, § 3(a), Mar. 27, 1974, 88 Stat. 52; Pub. L. 97–69, § 7, Oct. 26, 1981, 95 Stat. 1043; Pub. L. 116–260, div. I, title I, § 116(b)(1), (c)(1), Dec. 27, 2020, 134 Stat. 1637, 1638.)