IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Despite making a career out of calling for government accountability and “fighting government waste,” Bost spent more than any other Member of Congress on unsolicited mail from January – March. The cost to taxpayers is nearly $113,000. That’s more than $50,000 more than any other member.
ICYMI: Bost tops all franked-mail senders in first three months of 2015
St. Louis Dispatch
June 30, 2015
Members of Congress have the legal right to send letters and brochures to their constituents on the taxpayers’ dime, a process known as the “franking privilege.”
As the Internet has supplanted mail for many Americans, the practice has fallen dramatically in recent years. Except for Rep. Mike Bost.
The freshman Republican from Murphysboro sent more 244,000 pieces of mail at a cost of almost $113,000 in the first three months of 2016, making him the biggest congressional mail sender by far. He spent almost twice the amount spent by the second biggest frank-mail user in that time period.
Bost sent more pieces of mail in those three months than the number of people — roughly 210,000 — who voted when Bost defeated Democrat Rep. Bill Enyart in last November’s election.
Bost says the mailings help him to stay connected to constituents and that mail is still an important way that people in his sprawling district communicate. Democrats say he is belying his claims of fiscal conservatism.
Franked mail is falling in usage, and it is coming under increased scrutiny. A Congressional Research Service report released in May said that the volume of mass mailings sent by members of Congress to constituents fell from 103 million in 2008 to 40.3 million last year. The cost to taxpayers in that window fell from $25.2 million to $15.8 million.
But mass communication by members of Congress — including radio, TV, newspaper and Internet advertisements; automated phone calls; mass faxes and mass emails — rose to about 623 million messages at a cost of $5.1 million last year, according to the CRS report.
Critics of franked mail say there are more easily accessible and cheaper ways to stay in touch with constituents. The CRS study also pointed out that some see the massed mailings as unfair advantages for incumbents, “unsolicited and, in effect, publicly funded campaign literature.”
In 2014, the CRS report says, 93.9 percent of “total mass constituent contact” was by the mass communications described above, but that the cost of producing that was only a quarter of what members of Congress spent on total communications. It estimated it costs taxpayers 39 cents for every piece of mail members of Congress sent.
Bost communications director Jim Forbes said that Bost sees franked mail as part of the “all-of-the above approach” to be the “the most accessible representative he can be.”
“He’s conducting free town hall meetings in every county, hosting telephone town halls and keeping folks informed on social media,” Forbes said. “As a freshman member, we had the unique obligation of introducing our constituents to the office and the services we provide, as well as asking for their input on important issues before Congress. In an expansive, rural district like ours, you can’t touch everyone without using mail to communicate.”
Democrats aren’t buying it.
“It’s the fact that Bost has made a career out of calling for government accountability and fighting government waste that makes his hundred thousand dollar mass mailing remarkable,” said Sacha Haworth, Great Lakes press secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Over the first three months of 2015, the second biggest user of franked mail was Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., who spent $66,202 sending about 232,000 pieces.
Other freshmen Republicans spent lesser amounts. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, sent 109,522 pieces at a cost of roughly $38,000, according to House records.
Enyart spent nothing on franked mail his first three months in office in 2013, according to House records.
Bost is having a series of meetings in the district during the congressional July 4 hiatus, joining Davis on Tuesday for a meeting with steelworkers and U.S. Steel officials in Granite City. Bost and Davis recently pushed legislation through the House of Representatives easing regulations on when and how U.S. steelmakers can respond to suspected “dumping” of artificially lowered price of foreign steel on U.S. markets.
House records show that Davis spent $5,237 sending out 9,523 pieces over the first three months this year. Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin, sent 21,930 pieces at a cost of $3,445. Reps. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis,; Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth; and John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, reported spending nothing on franked mail from January through March.
Bost also reported spending $4,800 on 164,413 “mass communication” messages — those through email, fax, or mass media advertising — from January through March. No other House member from the St. Louis area reported spending on this.
But Bost’s activity in this area was far less than many other members of Congress, some of whom reported sending out well over 1 million messages to constituents from January through March. Pedro Pierluisi, a Democratic delegate from Puerto Rico, reported spending $153,572 to send out more than 1.55 million communications over those three months, according to the House records.