Part TITLE 39-POSTAL SERVICE CHAPTER I-POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT Part 1 Establishment and organization of 12 Treatment of mail matter at rethe Post Office Department 2 Supply contracts 3 Postage stamps and other stamped 4 Letter boxes, call and lock boxes 7 Unmailable matter: excepted fire arms 8 Free matter in the mails ceiving offices 13 Dead mail matter 16 Registry system: insurance and col- 17 Money order system 20 Treatment of mail matter in the 9 The privacy and safeguarding of the 21 International postal service mails 10 Treatment of mail matter at mailing offices 11 Short-paid and unmailable matter at mailing offices 22 Treatment of mail matter received from foreign countries involving the customs revenue CROSS REFERENCES Canal Zone regulations relating to postal service: See Panama Canal, 35 CFR Part 17. Civil Aeronautics Authority regulations relating to air mail: See Civil Aviation, 14 CFR Part 90. Illustrations of United States postage stamps: See Money and Finance: Treasury, 31 CFR Part 400. Importations by mail under regulations of the Bureau of Customs, Department of the Treasury: See Customs Duties, 19 CFR Part 7. Importations of plant or plant products by mail: See Agriculture, 7 CFR Part 351. Regulations of the Secret Service relating to illustrations of United States postage stamps: See Money and Finance: Treasury, 31 CFR Part 400. SUPPLEMENTAL PUBLICATIONS List of international money-order offices in certain foreign countries, Post Office Department. Rev. to July 1, 1935. (Form XIV) Opinions of the Solicitor of the Post Office Department. Irregular. The Postal Bulletin, Post Office Department. Daily except Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. For list of abbreviations used in this chapter, see note to § 1.1. PART 1-ESTABLISHMENT AND ORGANIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT 1.3 General duties of Postmaster Gen- 1.5 Office of the First Assistant Post eral. master General. Page 1 1.6 Office of the Second Assistant Post- 1.8 Office of the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General. master General. 1.7 Office of the Third Assistant Post master General. Section 1.1 Post offices and post roads. The Congress shall have power to establish post offices and post roads; and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.† (Constitution, art. 1, sec. 8) [Sec. 1] The source of 88 1.1 to 1.8, inclusive, (except for amendments and other sources noted in the text,) is Postal Laws and Regulations, Postmaster General, 1932. ABBREVIATIONS: The following abbreviations are used in this chapter: 1.2 Post Office Department. There shall be at the seat of government an executive department to be known as the Post Office Department, and a Postmaster General, who shall be the head thereof, and who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and who may be removed in the same manner; and the term of the Postmaster General shall be for and during the term of the President by whom he is appointed, and for 1 month thereafter, unless sooner removed.*t (R.S. 388; 5 U.S.C. 361) [Sec. 2] *§§ 1.2 to 1.8, inclusive, issued under the authority contained in R.S. 161, 396, sec. 304, 309, 42 Stat. 24, 25; 5 U.S.C. 22, 369. 1.3 General duties of the Postmaster General. It shall be the duty of the Postmaster General: (a) To establish and discontinue post offices. Page 2 +For source citation, see note to § 1.1. (b) To instruct all persons in the postal service with reference to their duties. (c) To decide on the forms of all official papers, except as otherwise provided by law. (d) To enforce the prompt rendition of returns relative to ac counts. (e) To control, according to law, and subject to the settlement of the General Accounting Office, all expenses incident to the service of the department. (f) To superintend the disposal of the moneys of the department. (g) To issue warrants to cover money into the Treasury; and to pay out the same. (h) To superintend generally the business of the department, and execute all laws relative to the Postal Service.*t [Sec. 6] FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES 1.4 Office of the Postmaster General-(a) Matters assigned. The Postmaster General assigns to his office: The superintendence and government of the department, and the appointment of the officers, clerks, and employees; the general direction of the Postal Service in all its branches, the management of its finances, and disbursement of appropriations; the appointment of postmasters of the fourth class; the submission of cases to the President relating to appointments to be made by him; the determination of appeals from the action of the several Assistant Postmasters General; the promulgation of rules and regulations; the consideration of claims for damage done to persons or property by or through the operation of the Post Office Department and claims of postmasters for credit or reimbursement for losses by fire, burglary, or other unavoidable casualty; the issuance of all orders requiring the formal approval of the Postmaster General; the custody of the official seal; and the performance of all special duties enjoined by law upon the Postmaster General. (b) Executive Assistant. The Executive Assistant to the Postmaster General shall perform such duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Postmaster General. (c) Special Assistant. The Special Assistant to the Postmaster General shall perform such duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the Postmaster General. (d) Chief Clerk. The Chief Clerk of the Post Office Department is charged with the general superintendence and assignment to duty of the clerical and subclerical forces of the department; the supervision of the preparation of estimates of appropriations for the department; of the advertising of the department; of requisitions on the Treasury and the expenditures of the appropriations for the departmental service; with the custody of the journals and order books; the consideration of requisitions on the Public Printer for printing and binding required by the department and service; the furnishing, receipt, and inspection of stationery, blanks, and supplies for the department; the compilation and distribution of the Official *For statutory citation, see note to § 1.2. Page 3 Postal Guide and other postal publications; miscellaneous correspondence and files of the Postmaster General's office; the care and maintenance of all public property located in the departmental building; together with such additional duties as may be assigned to him by the Postmaster General. (e) Disbursing Clerk. The Disbursing Clerk is charged with the payment of all salaries to all officers, clerks, and employees of the department; the making of all payments for rent of departmental buildings, contingent expenses, the publication of the Official Postal Guide, printing and binding, postage on the department's foreign correspondence, and such other expenditures as may be authorized; the sale of post route and rural delivery maps, and the keeping of accounts of expenditures. The Disbursing Clerk shall give bond in the sum of $25,000 for the safe-keeping, proper disbursement of, and accounting for all public moneys coming into his possession, and for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office according to law. (f) Solicitor. (1) The Solicitor is charged with the duty of giving opinions to the Postmaster General and the heads of the several offices of the department upon questions of law arising upon the construction of the postal laws and regulations, or otherwise, in the course of business in the Postal Service; with the consideration and submission (with advice) to the Postmaster General of claims for damage done to persons or property by or through the operation of the Post Office Department, and of all claims of postmasters for losses by fire, burglary, or other unavoidable casualty, and of all certifications by the Comptroller General of cases of proposed compromise of liabilities to the United States, and of the remission of fines, penalties, and forfeitures under the statutes; with the giving of advice, when desired, in the preparation of correspondence with the Department of Justice and other departments, including the Court of Claims, involving questions of law or relating to prosecutions or suits affecting or arising out of the Postal Service, and with assisting when desired in the prosecution or defense of such cases, and the maintenance of suitable records of opinions rendered affecting the Post Office Department and the Postal Service; and with the consideration of applications for pardon for crimes committed against the postal laws which may be referred to the department; with the preparation and submission (with advice) to the Postmaster General of all appeals to him from the heads of the offices of the department depending upon questions of law; with the determining of questions as to the delivery of mail the ownership of which is in dispute; with the hearing and consideration of cases relating to lotteries and the misuse of the mails in furtherance of schemes to defraud the public; with the consideration of all questions relating to the mailability of alleged indecent, obscene, scurrilous, or defamatory matter; with determining the legal acceptability of securities offered by banks to secure postal savings deposits; with the examining and, when necessary, drafting of all contracts of the department; with the enforcement of laws making unmailable matter containing any advertisement of intoxicating liquors or solicitation of an order for such liquors when addressed to places where it is un Page 4 lawful to advertise or solicit orders for such liquors; with the legal work incident to the enforcement of those provisions of the espionage law which concern the Post Office Department; with the hearing of all complaints alleging violation of the law and the terms of their contracts by air mail contractors; and with such other like duties as may from time to time be required by the Postmaster General. (2) The Assistant to the Solicitor, the Assistant Solicitor, and the assistant attorneys for the Post Office Department are assigned to the office of Solicitor. The Assistant to the Solicitor shall have general supervision of the work of the office under the Solicitor and in his absence shall discharge the duties regularly devolving upon that officer; and in the absence of both, the Assistant Solicitor and the assistant attorneys in the order of their standing shall act in their stead. (g) Purchasing Agent. The Purchasing Agent for the Post Office Department is assigned, under the direction and control of the Postmaster General, the supervision of the purchase of all supplies; and all purchases of supplies of every nature and character, whether under contract or not, either for the Post Office Department proper or for any branch of the Postal Service, shall be made by the Purchasing Agent: Provided, however, That the bureau officer controlling an appropriation may authorize postmasters and other postal officials to purchase supplies chargeable to that appropriation, subject to the approval of the Purchasing Agent in each instance. (h) Comptroller, Bureau of Accounts. To the Comptroller, Bureau of Accounts, are assigned the administrative examination of all postal and money-order accounts of postmasters and foreign administrations; the instructing of postmasters relative to preparation and rendition of their accounts; the keeping of administrative appropriation and cost accounts; and the compilation of statistical reports, monthly operating statements, and other financial data for the information of the Postmaster General and other officers of the Post Office Department in connection with the administration of the service; also, the keeping of the service records of all employees of the department and the Postal Service necessary for the administration of the retirement law. CROSS REFERENCES: For regulations relating to supply contracts, see Part 2. For regulations relating to "purchasing agent", see § 2.1. For retirement regulations under the civil service rules, see 5 CFR Part 53. (i) Chief Inspector. (1) The Chief Inspector is charged with the selection, government, and assignment to duty of post-office inspectors in charge, post-office inspectors, and clerks at division headquarters, and the general supervision of the business of that force and of the Division of Post Office Inspectors in the Department; with keeping the Department advised as to the condition and needs of the service; with the custody and proper disposition of all money and property coming into the possession of the post-office inspection service or the Division of Post Office Inspectors; with the preparation and issuance of all cases for investigation by post-office inspectors; with the direction of all inquiries for the purpose of determining whether articles of mail matter have been delivered; with all matters Page 5 |