[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3477 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3477

   To exempt humanitarian care packages sent to members of the Armed 
 Forces stationed overseas from certain postal reporting requirements, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 15, 2025

Mr. Blumenthal introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To exempt humanitarian care packages sent to members of the Armed 
 Forces stationed overseas from certain postal reporting requirements, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Support Our Troops Shipping Relief 
Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. TREATMENT BY UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE OF HUMANITARIAN CARE 
              PACKAGES SENT TO MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES STATIONED 
              OVERSEAS.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 34 of title 39, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after section 3401 the following:
``Sec. 3402. Treatment of humanitarian care packages sent to members of 
              the Armed Forces stationed overseas
    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Armed forces.--The term `Armed Forces' has the 
        meaning given that term in section 101(a) of title 10.
            ``(2) Covered shipment.--The term `covered shipment' means 
        a shipment that--
                    ``(A) is addressed to a military mail address or 
                other destination authorized by the Secretary of 
                Defense; and
                    ``(B) consists of one or more humanitarian care 
                packages.
            ``(3) Humanitarian care package.--The term `humanitarian 
        care package' means a parcel containing donated goods intended 
        solely for the comfort, welfare, or morale of members of the 
        Armed Forces at duty stations overseas.
            ``(4) Military mail address.--The term `military mail 
        address' means an Army Post Office (APO), Fleet Post Office 
        (FPO), or Diplomatic Post Office (DPO) address designated by 
        the Secretary of Defense for receipt of mail by members of the 
        Armed Forces stationed overseas.
    ``(b) Domestic Treatment of Military Mail.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Postal Service shall treat any 
        covered shipment as domestic mail for all purposes, regardless 
        of destination.
            ``(2) Regulations.--Not later than 30 days after the date 
        of enactment of the Support Our Troops Shipping Relief Act of 
        2025, the Postmaster General shall prescribe regulations to 
        carry out paragraph (1).
            ``(3) Simplified customs declaration requirement.--In 
        implementing paragraph (1), to the extent that the Postal 
        Service requires a customs declaration form for covered 
        shipments, the Postal Service shall accept a simplified customs 
        declaration form, which may list categories of contents (such 
        as `snack foods', `personal hygiene items', `letters and 
        cards', or similar general descriptions) instead of the 
        classification under the Harmonized System or country-of-origin 
        information for each article in the shipment.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for 
chapter 34 of title 39, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 
end the following:

``3402. Treatment of humanitarian care packages sent to members of the 
                            Armed Forces stationed overseas.''.
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