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Order Code RS21562
Updated January 13, 2005
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Naming Post Offices Through Legislation
Nye Stevens
Specialist in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
Summary
An increasingly common form of legislation is the naming of post offices for
former Members of Congress or other figures of local or national renown. About one
in six public laws passed by the 108th Congress was a post office naming bill approved
under suspension of the rules. Unanimity of a state's congressional delegation is
required for the movement of naming bills to the floor of the House or Senate. The
costs of dedicating a post office in the name of an individual are modest, and this action
results in no change in public identification of the facility by its geographic location.
This report describes how the practice of naming post offices through public law
originated and how it is commonly done today. House and Senate practices for
approving such legislation, and procedures followed by the U.S. Postal Service in
organizing a dedication ceremony, are also described. This report will be updated in the
110th Congress.
Legislation naming post offices for individual persons has become the single most
common form of legislation if measured by the number of public laws enacted. Eighty-
nine of the 498 public laws passed by the 108th Congress, or 17.9%, were post office
naming bills. This report briefly recounts the history of the practice of naming post
offices for individuals, describes the process currently followed for enacting such bills,
and explains how a law changing the name of a post office is implemented by the U.S.
Postal Service (USPS).
History
The Post Office Department did not formally address the naming of post offices until
1891. Until then, the names of post offices were derived from a number of sources,
including the name of the town or township in which the post office was located, certain
neighborhoods, crossroads, local landmarks, and even the postmaster's name or place of
residence. On February 18, 1891, Postmaster Miscellaneous Order 87 instructed the
clerks of post offices nationwide to utilize the post office names published in the bulletins
of the United States Board on Geographic Names in naming post offices. The next year,
in 1892, Postmaster Miscellaneous Order 48 instructed the fourth assistant Postmaster
Congressional Research Service V The Library of Congress
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Stevens, Nye. Naming Post Offices Through Legislation, report, January 13, 2005; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc824673/m1/1/?q=RS21562: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.