For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations
October 3-4, 1998:

Congress and Stamps

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries

The Postal Service receives some 40-thousand requests a
year for subjects that someone or some group believes ought
to be on a U-S stamp.  Only about a hundred different
subjects are issued each year.

Of course, some requests carry more weight than others:
Earlier this year, Senate Budget Committee chairman Peter
Domenici of New Mexico insisted on a stamp for the Spanish
settlement of the Southwest.  He got it.  Organ and Tissue
Donations, also issued this summer, was proposed by Ohio
Republican congressman Mike DeWine.

It's an American Tradition: How else to explain the 1948
Poultry Industry stamp, featuring a chicken found in
only one Congressional district?

So you can imagine my cynicism when this past week a stamp
honoring fallen police and firefighters was announced on
Capitol Hill. It was just over two months ago that two
policemen there were killed in the line of duty.

However, I'm assured the stamp was planned well before the
tragedy. It'll be issued next summer.

And that's stamp collecting this week.

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News.


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