The House Appropriations Committee, by a 42-5 vote, Thursday approved a $25.4 billion fiscal 1998 Treasury-Postal appropriations measure, LEGI-SLATE News Service reported. During the session, Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., suggested that sales of items ranging from stationery to neck ties in post offices might put small businesses that sell similar items at a disadvantage; he proposed an amendment that would bar the Postal Service from expanding its sales of such ancillary items and require it to report back to Congress about the impact these sales might have on small businesses by the end of the year.
Treasury-Postal Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., said he would reluctantly accept the Wicker language since the committee had approved an amendment offered Tuesday by Rep. Anne Northup, R- Ky., affecting overseas shipping arrangements.
"We've tried to get out of the business of running the post office for the last 25 years. We ought not to get down that road again," Kolbe declared. Nonetheless, the amendment was adopted by a voice vote.
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