Special Stamp To Fight Disease May Be Canceled Penny To Fight Breast Cancer Seemed Like Can’t-Miss Idea
Some members of Congress want to tap the power of the penny for breast cancer research. Plenty of people like the idea: issuing a postage stamp that devotes a cent per sale to the cause.
A measly penny, adding up to millions of dollars to fight a disease that kills more than 40,000 Americans a year?
Surely this proposal is in the bag.
Hardly.
Whether it’s a reflexive resistance to change or an appropriate dose of caution, Washington does not move quickly even on ideas that sound as beneficent as motherhood.
Two California Democrats have reintroduced legislation that died last year to create an optional 33-cent stamp, a penny costlier than the regular first-class rate.
Rep. Vic Fazio has 100 co-sponsors, mostly Democrats, for his bill. Sen. Dianne Feinstein was joined by an influential Republican, New York Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, this month when she introduced hers.
They believe it would be hard to lose on a proposition that would combine the U.S. Postal Service’s incredible reach - 40,000 post offices annually moving 180 billion pieces of mail - with the likelihood that untold millions would put up pennies to help lick a killer.
The post office ran an education campaign on breast cancer last year and an earlier one on AIDS. But it has refused to let raising money for a cause piggyback on its sales.
Postal officials and critics of the plan question whether administrative expenses of a special stamp might eat up that penny.
They also fear that raising money for one cause will open floodgates to others - today, breast cancer; tomorrow, AIDS, heart disease, the arts, gun rights?
“It’s been a longstanding policy that we not do them,” said Don Smeraldi, postal spokesman. Other countries have had mixed success with semipostals, as the premium stamps are called.
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been pitching semipostals to administrations and postmasters for 20 years.
“There isn’t even a curiosity,” Nader said.
“Simply to dismiss it because it’s a little difficult is not a proper way to consider what could be a very, very effective way to raise funds.”
In Canada, where cultural attitudes toward charity are similar, the six-month sale of a stamp for literacy raised questions about whether semipostals are an efficient way to raise money.
The stamp - available only in booklets of 10 for a 50-cent premium - produced disappointing sales and high costs for the Canadian post office.
“There is an enormous administrative expense behind it,” said Canada Post spokesman Tim McGurrin. “From a Canada Post point of view, it may be a while before we do another.”
Under the U.S. proposal, Nader agrees that simply picking breast cancer may prompt every cause to clamor for its own stamp.
But requiring charities to muster large petitions to get a stamp, or letting people check off their favorite charity when they buy a generic semipostal, could be an alternative, he said.
With characteristic impatience, Nader said distribution and accounting problems can be sorted out in this computer age if the will exists:
“Some software genius can figure out a way to do it.”
xxxx At a glance Associated Press WASHINGTON A look at bills by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif., to create a stamp for breast cancer research: THE DISEASE: Breast cancer kills more than 40,000 Americans a year, the second-highest cause of cancer deaths for women behind lung cancer. HOW STAMP WOULD WORK: People wanting to support research could buy optional 33-cent stamp, with the extra penny, minus Postal Service administrative expenses, devoted to cause. REWARDS: Advocates believe millions of Americans would spend the extra penny a stamp to spur research. RISKS: Skeptics say accounting, distribution and marketing costs could wipe out proceeds, and other causes would clamor for own stamp. FOREIGN EXPERIENCE: Canadian literacy stamp in booklets of 10 for $5 - 50 cents more than 10 regular stamps - sold poorly during six-month campaign. It created high expenses for post office but possibly provided modest windfall for literacy.