House mail gets a second look

WASHINGTON -- The House is employing a private contractor to double-check its sanitized mail from the U.S. Postal Service to be sure it is free of anthrax.

Also, under the contract, Pitney Bowes Inc. is cutting slits in the bottom of every irradiated letter from the Postal Service to make sure that any more powder -- even if it's a prankster's concoction -- does not get inside any House office and alarm employees.

Jim Forbes, a spokesman for the House Administration Committee, said the contract is a broadening of Pitney Bowes' previous work in screening congressional mail for bombs. He said he could not provide details of the cost of the contract.

The House normally receives about 50,000 pieces of mail a day, he said.

The National Taxpayers Union, which often questions spending priorities by Congress, wants the House to disclose what it is paying its contractor for the extra checking of mail already sanitized by the Postal Service's contractor, NTU spokesman Pete Sepp said.

"Taxpayers have a right to know -- do members of Congress feel their mail is safe or don't they, and if they do, why did they spend the money" for extra checking? Sepp said.

Forbes said House officials believe that the irradiation being done by Postal Service contractors is "foolproof" and effective. But he said a House task force on security decided to require the extra checking.

The Postal Service is using Titan Corp. in Lima, Ohio, and IBA of Bridgeport, N.J., to irradiate mail sent to federal offices in Washington.

AMA: Study smallpox shots

SAN FRANCISCO -- The American Medical Association on Tuesday refused to endorse smallpox vaccinations for all Americans, as some doctors have called for.

Instead, the AMA called on federal heath authorities to continue studying the repercussions of mass inoculation.

Some doctors said they are worried that the vaccine itself could kill as many as 300 people if the entire U.S. population were vaccinated.

"There are huge, complex issues involved and due deliberation is needed," said Dr. Ron Davis, a public health expert from Detroit and a member of the AMA's 16-member board of trustees.

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