Rep. Daniel Donovan, R-N.Y., introduced legislation Tuesday that would require post offices around the country to display pictures of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
Donovan’s bill is a response to a constituent of his who said pictures of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were displayed for years in her local post office in New York, but pictures of Trump and Pence were never put up.
She was told a U.S. Postal Service regulation prevents the display of the president and vice president, but was suspicious of this rule because it was never enforced when Obama was in office. The U.S. Postal Service says the rule was put in place in 1875, but Donovan’s office believes it was never enforced until Trump was elected.
“First of all, the USPS rule is ridiculous,” Donovan said in April when he was still writing the bill. “When people go to the post office or any federal building, they expect to see pictures of their government leaders displayed.”
“Second of all, it’s disturbing to hear anecdotal evidence that this rule was ignored for a very long time, and is only being enforced now because of who occupies the Oval Office,” he added then.
“It’s sad that a bill like this is even necessary, but my constituent noticed what seemed like selective enforcement so I took action,” he said in a Wednesday statement to the Washington Examiner. “Once this bill becomes law, there will be one uniform standard for every president and every post office.”
Under his bill, the postmaster general would be required to issue new regulations that require all post offices to display the official portrait of the president and vice president.
“The official portraits of the President and Vice President shall be displayed side-by-side with the President on the left of the Vice President,” his bill stated. “Such portraits shall be equal in size and displayed at the same height.”
The bill defines “official portrait” as the “photograph released by the White House and produced by the Government Publishing Office for purposes of display in Federal facilities.”
