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>> The people that voted for, uh, the senator or the member of the House, expect him
or her to communicate with them.
>> Let's talk about the franking privilege. Uh,this should be fun!
Professor Obazuaye, explain for our students, give us a definition. What is the
franking privilege?
>> Franking privilege is derived from the word, frank,
which is the use of uh... US Postal Service for free, or at tax payers expense,
by members of Congress. That means that they can send out newsletters and direct
mail to their constituents.
>> Yeah, on the surface of it, it sounds kind of a harmless. Professor Reece,
uh... give us an example... or something our students can relate to; how is the franking privilege
used uh... by members of Congress? >> Well, the significance is... it's used and then
sometimes can be misused. Well, the
significance is that if you're in Congress, uh, House of Representatives or the Senate,
you need to be communicate with your constituents; right? So, you're elected, you need to talk to them
through the mail,
you need to talk to them through digital systems,
and these systems are paid for by the government.
Uh, however, when you run for re-election, sometimes these uh... services can give
you an advantage, so that's why it's a significant issue. >> Now, Professor Obazuaye,
as we were preparing for this, we had a discussion.
Is the franking privilege basically free mail for members of Congress? And we
kind of chuckled about it. Is it free for real? >> For them, they may see it as free
because they don't have to pay for it. But, uh, if you look at it, tax payers pay for it.
So the government pays for members of Congress to send mail or newsletters to
their constituents
and uh... during the election, uh season, during which we, uh, anytime during the
election, it gives them undue advantage
over opponents. >> You know, uh... does anybody know,
how many people, let's say, a a member of the House of Representatives, do they represent?
Uh... you know, the House will have uh... four, five hundred thousand people in it, for example.
>> Now that's pretty amazing! So if we think about the number of households in a
congressional district, and wanted to send out a mailer, just a simple newsletter,
uh... what's happening in, in the district, that's, that's pretty expensive.
>> Very expensive. Yeah. Imagine you are in a large state, like
California, you got thirty million people plus to communicate with...>> If you're a US
senator, correct >> Yeah, yeah, so, you know, that's a lot of people to communicate with, it's
very very expensive. The government needs to cover that cost because
the people that voted for
the senator or the member of the House, expect him or her to communicate
with them.
>> Now, doesn't the news media
and other forms of media uh... basically provide a way for constituents to
know what's going on uh... in the House and Senate? What their members doing? Do
we really need taxpayers to basically give members of Congress this perk? >> Well, I
can jump in here and say, since we are talking about uh...
cutting the budget and uh... saving tax payers money, I think it is
questionable for , for members of Congress to continue to use, uh,
this service at tax payers expense.
>> Thank you very much gentlemen.