To amend title 39, United States Code, to clarify the instances in which the term "census" may appear on mailable matter.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 5148. Not surprisingly, I'm the author of it. I insisted on being the author because it was the right thing to do and because there needed to be a message sent loud and clear. Deceptive advertising is already bad enough in America today. We often receive things that look like your credit card bill when, in fact, they're an offer to buy or to get something or, in fact, to apply for a credit card. We've all received cards that look like you're already getting a card when, in fact, it's John Doe on the card and it's only the opportunity to spend money to get the real card.

But when it comes to the census, there is no separation between Republicans and Democrats and Independents. There is no separation between the House and the Senate. The sanctity of this constitutional responsibility to get it right, to count everyone, cannot be allowed to be interfered with by anyone's attempt to raise money.

When the earlier bill was passed--authored by Carolyn Maloney and cosponsored by many of us--we thought we had ended this. As a matter of fact, for all of us on both sides of the aisle, we believed then that an independent agency, the post office, could have stopped that mail without the law. But we wanted to make the intent of Congress clear. By passing that bill, we made the intent of Congress clear. We all talked about deceptive advertising, about people seeing something, thinking it was from the Census Bureau, thinking that, in fact, it was a census form. We crafted it in a way, as the chairman said, that was intended not to cross over anyone's free speech rights, including that through the mail. We achieved that. But lawyers at the Republican National Committee made a decision that the language of the bill was such that they could continue having a piece of the successful mailing go on.

Let me make something very clear here today: You cannot say we are beyond the letter of the law when you truly are within the intent of the law and tell the American people it's okay. The four squares of the law may or may not have been violated by the

NRCC. Most of us believe, as I said before, the post office could have stopped it before the law and certainly could stop this after the law; and I have sent, along with my ranking subcommittee member, a letter to the Postmaster encouraging him to make that decision, as has Congresswoman Maloney.

Notwithstanding their eventual action, we're making it clear here today that we will plug any perceived loopholes or any questions about whether or not you can or you cannot. The RNC sent out mailings which certainly violated the spirit of H.R. 4621. The mailings contained text visible from outside the envelope--not printed on the envelope, but effectively the same as printed on the envelope.

I would say to people who raise money, whether it's the Republican National Committee, the Democratic National Committee, other political entities, or nonpolitical entities who simply want to have their envelopes opened for an opportunity to raise money or get a message out, don't use the census. Don't even think about using the census, because it's wrong. If something is deceptive, then it is wrong under the law that we already passed. It is wrong under the law that we expect this bill to represent.

So, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the chairman, Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman Jason Chaffetz and, more importantly, the leadership of the House, both Mr. Boehner and Mr. Hoyer, because they made it possible for us to come to the floor quickly, get it to the Senate quickly, allow the Senate to deal with it quickly so the President can make a statement for the second time in less than a month. He shouldn't have to do it. He does have to do it. We're going to make sure that while the census is underway, that we not have anyone think that this is a time where they can continue to do fundraising that ultimately links itself to the ongoing census.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to thank the gentlelady from New York. Her words are our words; her thoughts are our thoughts. Perhaps as a proud Republican, I can do more than the thought she made.

Mr. Speaker, I want everyone to be counted in the census. I want everyone to open their envelopes from the census. As a Republican, I am particularly sensitive that I don't want Republicans to be undercounted. So I would advise, as I will do, if I receive anything and it looks like it's from the census, I'm going to open it. When I open it, if it's from the census, I'm going to fill it out. If it's not from the census, I'm going to throw it out because, ultimately, all of us, regardless of our party, should be indignant if we receive a request for money and we open it, believing it's from the census, only to find out that it is a request for money.

The census does not ask us for money. They ask us for sensitive information leading to a correct count of the American population, and from that, Congress does its work to allocate resources and, quite personally, to allocate representation here in the House. So I, for one, will open all the mail and encourage all to open all the mail. And when you open it, do the right thing if it's from the census; do the right thing if it's from somebody trying to fundraise. Let there be no doubt, this is important to us in the House. We speak with one voice. We speak today. I suspect that they will speak by tomorrow in the Senate, and we will make sure that this cannot be allowed.

In closing, I did join with the gentlelady from New York and Mr. Chaffetz, the gentleman from Utah, and the chairman in calling on the Postmaster to assert any jurisdiction he may believe he can, which we believe he has, to stop mailings even if they're going out today. But certainly within a matter of hours or days, we expect there will be new power without any question that would allow for the holding of that mail and its destruction.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I encourage passage of the bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5148) to amend title 39, United States Code, to clarify the instances in which the term ``census'' may appear on mailable matter.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 5148, the bill to further prohibit deceptive mailings using the word ``census.'' Only a few weeks ago, on March 10 to be exact, the House acted unanimously to deal with the misleading fundraising mail designed to look like it is from the Census Bureau. Congresswoman Maloney introduced H.R. 4621, the Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailing Act, which was originally cosponsored by me and Congressman Clay, chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the census. Congresswoman Maloney and Congressman Clay are longtime supporters of the census, and they have worked hard to make sure we have an accurate count in 2010.

H.R. 4621 was also cosponsored by the ranking member of the committee, Congressman Issa of California, as well as the ranking member of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the postal service, Congressman Jason Chaffetz. I thank them for their support and for helping us to move it to the floor today.

The goal of the bill was simple. The United States Census, currently under way, is a critical source of information for America's future. Regrettably, scammers and con artists are trying to hijack the word ``census'' to confuse citizens into opening and responding to mail that is unrelated to the actual U.S. Census. We must protect the U.S. Census from this kind of fraud. H.R. 4621 simply requires mailings which have the term ``census'' on the envelope or cover to also include an accurate return address and the name of the sender on the envelope.

H.R. 4621 was drafted narrowly to avoid the First Amendment concerns and avoid interfering with the legitimate use of the mail by nonprofit organizations. The bill was intended to prevent the deceptive use of look-alike mailings by requiring transparency and disclosure. The House voted 416-0 to pass H.R. 4621. The Senate passed the same bill by unanimous consent. Not many bills pass this House unanimously, but this one did--both Houses. That's not something that happened real quick around here. You would think the message sent by that law was very clear.

Unfortunately, days after H.R. 4621 was signed into law, the RNC sent a new mailing which includes the same deceptive practices. The new mailing is also labeled a census, and it does not include a return address or identify the sender as the RNC, as required by law, Mr. Speaker. One of these offensive mailings is dated April 12, only 5 days after the President signed H.R. 4621 into law. Apparently, the RNC cannot even let 1 week go by without deceiving the American public.

Despite the unanimous action of Congress, the RNC continues to act in defiance of Congress and plain common sense and fairness. These mailings continue to mislead citizens, confuse voters, and annoy recipients.

On that note, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York, Carolyn Maloney, who has been very involved in this issue, of course, and to say to my colleague from California, I really appreciate his involvement in this as well, the ranking member of the committee, Congressman Issa.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by saying that we need to send the kind of message that will make certain this stops. However, I do believe the new RNC mailings are illegal under current law. That's number one. This bill will clarify that any use of the word ``census'' that is visible through the envelope would trigger a requirement to disclose the name and return address of the sender. Congress should not have to act twice to make it clear that it is wrong to imitate the census, which is mandated by our Constitution. Unfortunately, the foolishness of the RNC has forced us to act again.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all of my colleagues, especially the ranking member of the committee, Congresswoman Maloney, and Mr. Chaffetz and others, especially their staffs, who understand and recognize how important the census is and that we should

not get involved in any kind of trickery when it comes to the census because there are so many things that depend on the census. Therefore, to play around with it, to me, is so unfair when you're talking about, really, playing around with the lives of people, because so many things are based on the fact that the count, the count is so important. So it's my hope that the RNC will recognize this and stop this trickery, because there is no place, no time do we need that today.

We need to make certain that everybody fills out their census form, and gets it back in as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership in so many ways, and I thank my good friend on the other side of the aisle for his leadership on this issue and many others.

We are united today in a bipartisan effort, Republicans and Democrats. We are united in our efforts to stop the RNC from using census mailings for political gain and to fundraise for the RNC.

Mr. Steele, in particular, the head of the RNC, 5 days after this Congress in a bipartisan vote that was unanimous on both sides of the aisle, mailed out another partisan mailer, raising money for the RNC in an envelope that looked like it was an official document for the Census Bureau. I suggest that Mr. Steele contact the members of his own party before he acts in such a way, because the Republicans supported stopping using the census mailer in any way for partisan gain.

Specifically, this Congress passed legislation to stop mailers, fake mailers, look-alike mailers, that made the document look official, like a census document, to open it up. The RNC and others were mailing fundraisers, acting like they were the census. This is wrong. We passed legislation to stop it. It is now under review by the postal department. I have every bit of confidence that they will report that it violated not only the spirit of the law but that it violated the law.

The ink wasn't even dry from President Obama signing the legislation into law, and 5 days later the RNC leadership sent out another partisan mailer designed to look like the census to mislead people. This is dangerous because the census is important to our country. It is mandated by the Constitution. It must take place every 10 years, and the census numbers are the numbers that we use to decide representation. Practically every funding formula is based on census numbers. So we want people to respond to the census. It's important. To the degree that mock, fake mailers are out there deceiving people, it will drive down the participation.

So today we are united on enforcing the law in a bipartisan way. And I congratulate particularly the leadership on the other side of the aisle that are speaking out against the leadership of their own RNC, knowing that the census is important and should not be used for partisan reasons. So I compliment Steny Hoyer and Mr. Boehner for moving this to the floor immediately so that another mailer doesn't go out.

This is a critical time for the census. It is in full swing. People are responding to their mail. There will be enumerators. There will be additional mail. To the extent that people are fundraising with fake look-alike documents, it will drive down the participation in the federally mandated, constitutionally required, and federally funded census. It is undercutting tax dollars from the public that are trying to get an accurate count and an accurate picture of where we are from the census data. So this is a very important action, and it's one that we are acting quickly on. And I hope the RNC and anyone else who wants to put out a deceptive, misleading mailing will stop and respect the law, respect the census, and respect this Congress.

I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5148, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.