Post offices throughout the country accept mail and packages for military personnel and deliver these items to military installations in the United States. For mailers, then, the postage is subsidized—they pay only the domestic portion of the cost. When the Armed Forces are engaged in combat or other dangerous activities, the President has the authority to permit service members to send personal correspondence, free of charge, to places within the delivery limits of a U.S. post office (39 U.S.C. However, citizens of the United States have never been authorized to send mail to service members, whether overseas or not, without paying postage. The USPS offers "free Military kits" to military families who want to send packages overseas. Legislation in the 112th Congress

Representative Peter King introduced H.R. 1935 would
establish a postage benefit for members of the armed services on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, and for individuals who are "hospitalized at a facility under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces of the United States as a result of a disease or injury incurred as a result of service in Iraq or Afghanistan," provide a beneficiary with one coupon or voucher per month, which he or she could give to anyone who wished to send a letter of no more than 13 ounces or a parcel of no more than 15 pounds; and authorize an appropriation to the DOD to cover the cost of this program to the USPS. Legislation in Previous Congresses

Legislation to establish a free-mail-to-troops postage benefit has been introduced in the 109 th , 110 th , and 111 th Congresses. This bill was very similar to H.R. 704 did not define who may use a postage voucher. 3326 , the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010.
Members of the Armed Forces on duty in designated combat areas can send personal correspondence, free of postage, to addresses in the United States. However, there is not a comparable policy to permit individuals in the United States to send letters and packages to troops serving overseas free of charge.
H.R. 1935 has been introduced in the 112th Congress to establish a new, free postage benefit. Military personnel who are deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq, or who are hospitalized as a result of such deployment, would receive one postage voucher or coupon per month. The recipient may then give this voucher to a person in the United States, who could use it to send a letter or a parcel to a deployed member of the Armed Forces. Similar legislation was introduced but not enacted in the previous three Congresses.
The federal government does subsidize the postage an individual pays to send mail to troops. A sender is charged only for the cost of the domestic portion of the delivery—the Department of Defense pays the cost to move the mail from the United States to troops overseas. Additionally, since October 2008 the U.S. Postal Service has offered a discounted package service to families wishing to send packages to members of the Armed Services stationed overseas.
This report will be updated to reflect significant legislative action.