Senate votes to end mailing discounts for political parties

By Ramsey Cox - 03/23/13 01:26 AM ET

The Senate approved an amendment to the budget that would require political committees and campaigns to pay the full mailing price.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) introduced the amendment, which passed by voice vote early Saturday morning. Coburn said his amendment would end non-profit postal discount rates for political committees bringing at least $15 billion in revenue for the U.S. Postal Service each year.

Coburn said his amendment was especially important since the U.S. Postal Service is losing more than $40 million a day.

The Senate also voted on the following budget amendments:

- Sen. Mike Johanns (R-S.D.) amendment 624, to eliminate the cap on health savings accounts and not require a doctors’ prescription for the purchases made through with a health saving account on over the counter medicine, passed by voice vote.

- Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) amendment 232, to protect the American people and strengthen our national security by fully funding the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and the BioShield Special Reserve Fund, passed by voice vote.

- Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) amendment 538, to increase waiver threshold of unfunded mandates point of orders to 60 votes, passed by voice vote.

- Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) amendment 340, to require that financial regulation have cost-benefit analysis, failed 47-52.