Campaign News
March 24, 2009
Postal Service stamp committee reluctant to change internal guideline that prohibits stamps which honor veterans
The United States Postal Service continues to look at the proposal for the Japanese American World War II veterans. It's next meeting is in July. David Failor, Executive Director of Stamp Services for the Postal Service, has acknowledged that the main sticking point has been an internal guideline which is not publicly posted in its criteria. The Postal Service's stamp selection body is the 15-member Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC), which reviews an estimated 50,000 proposals each year and recommends a select few to the Postmaster General, who has the final say. Mr. Failor explained that the CSAC has the ability to amend its guideline, established in the mid-1990s, that states "Stamps will not be issued to honor individual sub-branches, units, or divisions of the military." The CSAC claims that the Japanese American WWII veterans stamp proposal falls under this guideline, but others disagree. Representing the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA), Gerald Yamada countered this month in a letter to the CSAC that the guideline does not apply to this stamp proposal. Mr. Yamada argues that the proposal seeks to honor all of the Japanese Americans who served in the military during WWII, and not one particular sub-branch, unit, or division in the military.
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