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Support Our Troops Shipping Relief Act of 2025
To exempt humanitarian care packages sent to members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas from certain postal reporting requirements, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends postal service regulations to treat humanitarian care packages sent to members of the Armed Forces stationed overseas as domestic mail for all purposes. Humanitarian care packages are defined as parcels containing donated goods for the comfort, welfare, or morale of troops stationed overseas, addressed to military mail addresses such as Army Post Office or Fleet Post Office addresses. The bill requires the Postmaster General to issue regulations within 30 days of enactment to implement this treatment of military care packages. If customs declarations are required, the bill allows the Postal Service to accept simplified declaration forms that list general categories of contents instead of detailed item-by-item classifications.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Richard Blumenthal’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT $9,500
- FREEPOINT COMMODITIES LLC $6,600
- ALIX PARTNERS $6,600
- PALANTIR $6,600
- KRUX INC. $6,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Richard Blumenthal → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Dec 15, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. · senate
- Dec 15, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
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.”. <all>
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