The United States House Committee on Post Office and Post Roads was a congressional committee that existed until 1946. A Select Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads was established in 1806 and made a standing committee in 1808 during the 10th Congress. The early membership of the committee consisted of one Member from each state.
The jurisdiction of the committee extended to all proposed legislation relating to the carrying of the mails, both foreign and domestic. It included the determination of the location, construction, and maintenance of post offices and post roads; the acquisition, lease, or transfer of realty or facilities for postal purposes; and certain aspects of the employment and management of postal employees, such as the pay and leave of letter carriers, and the settlement of claims brought by employees or contractors. It included the regulation of the Postal Service, including postal rates, the franking privilege, and the printing of stamped envelopes. At various times the Railway Mail Service, ocean mail service, pneumatic tube service, postal savings banks, postal telegraphy, the Air Mail Service, and Rural Free Delivery were included in its jurisdiction.
As part of its responsibility the committee investigated the management of postal facilities, contracts for carrying the mail, and other subjects such as the forgery of postal money orders.
In 1885 the jurisdiction of the committee was expanded to include appropriation authority. The committee prepared Post Office appropriations bills from that time until 1920 when the authority was revoked under a rule change. The committee functioned until 1946 (the 79th Congress) when its jurisdiction was included in that of the new House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service.
Chairmen Chair Party State Start of Service End of Service John Rhea Democratic-Republican Tennessee 1807 1815 Samuel D. Ingham Democratic-Republican Pennsylvania 1815 1818 Arthur Livermore Democratic-Republican New Hampshire 1818 1821 Francis Johnson Democratic-Republican Kentucky 1821 1823 John Telemachus Johnson Democratic-Republican Kentucky 1823 1825 Samuel D. Ingham Jacksonian Pennsylvania 1825 1828 Samuel McKean Jacksonian Pennsylvania 1828 1829 Richard Mentor Johnson Jacksonian Kentucky 1829 1832 Henry William Connor Jacksonian North Carolina 1832 1839 James Iver McKay Democratic North Carolina 1839 1841 George N. Briggs Whig Massachusetts 1841 1843 George Washington Hopkins Democratic Virginia 1843 1847 William L. Goggin Whig Virginia 1847 1849 Emery D. Potter Democratic Ohio 1849 1851 Edson B. Olds Democratic Ohio 1851 1855 Daniel Mace Opposition Indiana 1855 1857 William Hayden English Democratic Indiana 1857 1859 Schuyler Colfax Republican Indiana 1859 1863 John B. Alley Republican Massachusetts 1863 1867 John F. Farnsworth Republican Illinois 1867 1873 John Black Packer Republican Pennsylvania 1873 1875 John Bullock Clark Jr. Democratic Missouri 1875 1877 Alfred Moore Waddell Democratic North Carolina 1877 1879 Hernando Money Democratic Mississippi 1879 1881 Henry H. Bingham Republican Pennsylvania 1881 1883 Hernando Money Democratic Mississippi 1883 1885 James Henderson Blount Democratic Georgia 1885 1889 Henry H. Bingham Republican Pennsylvania 1889 1891 John S. Henderson Democratic North Carolina 1891 1895 Eugene F. Loud Republican California 1895 1903 Jesse Overstreet Republican Indiana 1903 1909 John W. Weeks Republican Massachusetts 1909 1911 John A. Moon Democratic Tennessee 1911 1919 Halvor Steenerson Republican Minnesota 1919 1923 William Walton Griest Republican Pennsylvania 1923 1929 Archie D. Sanders Republican New York 1929 1931 James M. Mead Democratic New York 1931 1938 Milton A. Romjue Democratic Missouri 1939 1943 Thomas G. Burch Democratic Virginia 1943 1946 George D. O'Brien Democratic Michigan 1946 1947
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