Bill 602P Hoax

Summary: Warnings of House of Representatives/US Postal Service asking for tax on emails

Circulation: 1999

Status: Hoax

The Debunking

Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives to write their congressional representative and say "NO" to Bill 602P."

There is no Federal Bill 602P. This email was retooled from an older Canada Post warning with minor changes to the locale. People in the U.K. also received this warning. Nonetheless, they are all untrue.

  • The US House of Representatives prefaces their bills with H.R. (as in H.R. Bill 115). The Senate uses S. Therefore Bill 602P couldn't have come from the US Congress.
  • The US Post Office has no authority to claim a tax on your ISP. (That's a fact!)
  • There is no Congressman Schnell.
  • There is no lawyer named Richard Stepp.The original version claimed that Mr. Stepp was from Concord Street in Vienna, VA. Needless to say, there is no Concord Street. That's why that was stripped from this version (by someone that wanted to keep it alive).
  • The Washingtonian, a respected magazine, wrote no such article regarding the proposed 'tax'. In fact, they don't have a March 6th issue as they are a monthly magazine.

Oh, by the way, your emails never were free. Do you remember paying your ISP for access to the internet? there already is a tax figured into your internet costs. So, I guess the government does get its' share!

The moral to the story is: If someone tells you to forward something to everyone you know, it is always a hoax.

Update: According to news reports, during a NY Senate debate between Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio on Oct 8, 2000, both were asked their view of Bill 602P and both expressed their opposition to it. Rick Lazio went so far as to say "This is an example of the government's greedy hand in trying to take money from taxpayers that, frankly, it has no right to. We need to keep the government's hands off the Internet."

So, if you were duped by this hoax, you're in good company!

Original Text:

Guess the warnings were true. Federal Bill 602P 5-cents per E-mail sent. It figures! No more free E-mail! We knew this was coming!! Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge 5-cent charge on every delivered E-mail..

Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and continue using E-mail. The last few months have revealed an alarming trend in the Government of the United States attempting to quietly push through legislation that will affect our use of the Internet.
Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be attempting to bill E-mail users out of 'alternative postage fees.'

Bill 602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP. Washington DC lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent this legislation from becoming law. The US Postal Service is claiming lost revenue, due to the proliferation of E-mail, is costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed their recent ad campaign: "There is nothing like a letter."

Since the average person received about 10 pieces of E-mail per day in 1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents a day -- or over $180 per year -- above and beyond their regular Internet costs.

Note that this would be money paid directly to the US Postal Service for service they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is democracy and non-interference. You are already paying an exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureaucratic inefficiency. It currently takes up to days for a letter to be delivered from coast to coast. If the US Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail, it will mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States.

Congressional representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested "$20-$40 per month surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond the governments proposed E-mail charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story the only exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of email surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th, 1999 Editorial). Do not sit by and watch your freedom erode away!

Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and relatives to write their congressional representative and say "NO" to Bill 602P.

It will only take a few moments of your time and could very well be instrumental in killing a bill we do not want.

Links

USPS Disclaimer
American Bar Assoc. name search (look up Richard Stepp).
House of Representatives name search (look up Tony Schnell).
Senate name search (look up Tony Schnell).
Calif. Congressman Radanovich's site.
Congressman Mica's site.