The Nation - News from Sept. 29, 1989

The House voted to save free mass mailings that members of Congress send to constituents, but the vote that adopted a House-Senate compromise on a money bill would cut the mailings in half--from six to three annually. It was the first reduction in the program, but the vote saved the mailings from earlier calls for their virtual extinction. The House voted Tuesday to instruct its members of a House-Senate conference committee to back Senate language virtually ending the free mass mailings and giving the estimated $45 million in savings to the war on drugs. The conferees ignored both the House instruction and a Senate vote Sept. 7 against use of the newsletters.