About Sending a Letter by U.S. Mail
to the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.

How Long It Takes: The Rumor and The Fact

It takes 5-7 days for letters to arrive in the office of a U.S. Representative, as explained below.

Background

As a result of the incident(s) in 2001 regarding anthrax-tainted mail being sent to the U.S. Congress, the federal government set up a process to help ensure that all U.S. Mail arriving at the U.S. Congress is free of contaminants. During the time that the process was being set up in 2001 there was one 2-3 month period of time during which all U.S. Mail was stopped to the U.S. Congress. During that period the processes for ensuring contaminate-free mail were set up for the U.S. Senate and for the U.S. House.

The Rumor

Since the time of that one long delay in 2001, rumors started and continue that there are problems in sending an envelope in the U.S. Mail to the U.S. Representatives (Congresspersons) and U.S. Senators.

The Fact

It takes only 5-7 days for mail to reach the desk of a member of the U.S. Congress.

The Research: Meeting and Phone Calls

In 2007 in Washington D.C. I met with a supervisor of the U.S. Capitol Mail Room about the sending of mail from people across the United States. As a follow-up to that meeting, months later I made several additional contacts via phone calls to the managers of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Mail Rooms to confirm what he was told. I called again in November 2009 to the U.S. House Mail Room to help make absolutely certain, for your comfort and mine, that is all is fine for sending letters to the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

The Facts: The Truth About the Current Status

Mail sent to a U.S. Representative (or Senator) typically takes a maximum of 5-7 days, roughly 2-3 days longer than any other mail that is sent to Washington, D.C. It takes 2-3 days for the U.S. Postal Service plus 3 days for the U.S. Capitol mailroom processing for a total of 4-6 days: 5-7 days at the most.

The majority of the million letters goes to Washington D.C. during the first week of every month in a massive flow of envelopes, in the following steps, which take about 5 to 7 days for most mail going in this manner:
— transported in the U.S. Mail to an anthrax detection center
— processed by the detection center
— transported to an off-site location, associated with the U.S. Capitol mailroom, where it is inspected
— delivered to the 435 individual offices of U.S. Representatives
— and processed by the staff personnel in each of the 435 offices

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