Checks Are in Place for Mail Sent to White House

The mail cascades in--by one count, at least 35,000 pieces a day are addressed to the White House.

The first stop is not 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., however, but a military base miles away. There it is given a security screening, which includes at least a run through an X-ray machine to check for explosives. Then it is taken by truck to a sorting facility run by the U.S. Postal Service, where it is given a second screening.

Mail addressed to White House staff members is sorted, placed in pigeonholes and delivered to their offices. Mail addressed to President Bush makes another stop, several blocks from the Oval Office.

It is taken to the correspondence office, where volunteers and professional staff members review it to determine how it should be answered: with a form letter, perhaps, or, on the rare occasion, by the president himself.

Citing security concerns, White House officials declined to provide details about the flow of mail.

However, a former director of the correspondence office says that in recent years, mail addressed to the White House was first delivered to Bolling Air Force Base for the initial screening, then taken by truck to a mail room on the ground floor of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, where it was initially sorted.

The mail that went to the correspondence office was run through machines that opened each envelope before it was sent to the office staff. The correspondence office had 138 employees and 350 part-time volunteers during former President Bush’s administration.

So what happens when a member of the president’s family wants to send him a birthday card or some other personal missive?

It is sent to the White House just like all the other mail. But, at least in the past, it has carried a code--one word--that would get it routed directly to the president.