Reach out to your senators! Help stop Senate Bill 1253=increases to shipping costs and adult signature required for shippers for all vapor products

General Health and advocacy
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(Update - 06.25.20)

In November, CASAA alerted our members to S. 1253, which would prohibit the USPS from shipping vapor products and impose adult signature on delivery requirements for independent carriers like FedEx and UPS. Several months and reams of COVID-19 legislation later, S. 1253 is likely moving back to being fast-tracked through the Senate.

Please take action now by contacting your senators and urging them to reject this bill.

In the midst of a pandemic involving a severe respiratory illness, the last things that officials should be implementing are policies that threaten to send millions of people back to smoking!

(Original Post - 11.13.19)

S. 1253, which is the Senate version of HR 3842, is being fast-tracked through committee. This bill would prohibit the U.S. Postal Service from accepting packages of vapor products for delivery. While this is not an all-out ban on online sales, it would raise the cost of purchasing vapor products for people who depend on being able to have safer alternatives delivered to their door (i.e. people who live in rural areas, people who are unable to be home to sign for deliveries, etc…). The additional cost ranges from $3.00 to $5.00 per package, depending on the shipping company.

Take Action - Send a Message

While it is understandable that lawmakers want to make it harder for youth to get their hands on nicotine products, this legislation will not address youth access to social sources or illegal sellers on popular social media platforms. In short, all that S.1253/HR.3842 will do is make it more difficult for people to access safer alternatives to smoking. For people living in small towns and urban neighborhoods where vape shops might not exist, this means that cigarettes will remain the most popular and convenient tobacco product.

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Thank you @Wombatred26.

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Certainly, SD!! I just received the email and figured I’d share it.

I sent an email to my senators and hope, if everyone else gets the opportunity to do so, they will, too!

Maybe if enough people do, they’ll get the idea that it’s not a good idea to push this through!!

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I’m really glad you did, and hope everyone that likes the quick, inexpensive, hassle free shipping that we all have now, and enjoy, step up, so we can continue to enjoy that.

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There appear to have been no amendments to US House Resolution 3942 - stated as having identical language as contained in Senate Bill 1253 (PDF version here) - passed the House on October 28, 2019 (here is the US Congressional Record recording passage), and was received by the US Senate on October 29, 2019. No formally recorded activity in the US Senate is reported as having taken place since.

For what it is worth, GovTrack states that Skopos Labs at some point gave the bill a prognosis of a 2% chance of being enacted in law (data access requires sign-up)

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Thank you @Wombatred26 I’m all over this. I’m incensed about this whole thing. I’ve had to pay for signature fees and shipping is increasing. I have shinyitis and this is killing it for me, lol.

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I’m already experiencing the signature fees, etc. I buy a lot, lol.

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@Wombatred26 Done! However I got a message saying that the legislative seat in my state is open and message will be sent when seat is occupied. ???

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Just as well. House of Reps already executed their dirty business. (If this is an actual concern, and not perhaps political paranoia), it would be US Senators (Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren) that you would instead want to hammer upon forthwith. I see that Ed Markey is listed a co-sponsor, while Elizabeth Warren is not so listed. For dedicated nerds, here is an Oct. 28, 2019 House Judiciary Committee report.

Better yet, tell Midnight Mitch that - irrespective of any/all snow, rain, heat, and/or gloom of night - you like your Baccy Juice home delivered by America’s Finest. :exploding_head:

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@Wombatred26 same here…

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Here is a new one, reying to stop vape mail via the USPS

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Yup! Thats the same one. Thanks for the update, @mjag.

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This was the response from my state’s senator…:confused: Didn’t even mention the increase of shipping costs to vaping products and adult signature requirments…

Dear Ms. Anderson:

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the United States Postal Service. As your voice in Washington, I appreciate being made aware of your views.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) operates more than 31,600 retail locations and handles over 48 percent of the world’s mail volume. In addition to domestic services, they provide military postal service in 67 countries and diplomatic mail service in 113 countries. The USPS is primarily funded through a combination of annual appropriations from Congress and revenue generated by charging mail uses for the cost of the services it provides.

Since 1999, USPS has had a revolving borrowing authority from the Federal Financing Bank (FFB), a department within the Treasury, for up to $15 billion.
Over the last decade, USPS has borrowed up to the $15 billion limit with an inability to borrow additional funds. Since 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has considered USPS’s financial condition to be at high risk due to overall poor financial condition, insufficient cost savings, and unfavorable trends. For example, between 2007 and 2019 USPS lost over $75 billion and continues to hold unfunded liabilities for employee benefits. In addition to holding unfunded liabilities, USPS’s cost savings plans have not yielded the savings necessary to reduce operating costs. Statutory mandates, such as the requirements to maintain six-day delivery and prefund health benefits for future retirees, have limited the actions USPS might take to mitigate these challenges. While USPS seeks to modernize, their financial conditions over the past eleven years limits their ability to do so.

Unfortunately, USPS’s financial condition was poor before the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of COVID-19, USPS expects a loss of $13 billion in FY2020, $22 billion over the next 18 months and more than $54 billion over the longer term. Given your interest in USPS relief provided in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, you will be pleased to know section 6001 of the CARES Act gives USPS an additional $10 billion in borrowing authority from the FFB. This provision also requires USPS to prioritize the delivery of medical supplies. While I am aware that the funding provided in the CARES Act will not fully account for the losses USPS will experience – it is important to ensure that we provide relief that reflects the overall state of the agency, not just the strain the coronavirus has directly created.

Again thank you for your comments, as legislation regarding the postal service comes to the floor of the Senate in the near future, I will keep your thoughts in mind. Thank you for reaching out with your concerns. Please use my website as a resource for COVID-19 response activities at: https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/coronavirus, and if you are interested in keeping up with my work in the Senate, I encourage you to sign up for my online newsletter by visiting: https://www.inhofe.senate.gov/contact/newsletter.

Sincerely,

James M. Inhofe
United States Senator

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