Bill McAllister, Linn’s Stamp News reports:
Opposition by the United States Postal Service’s board of governors appears to have stalled plans for the first U.S. postage stamp to honor a living person.
A member of the board told Linn’s that many governors have reservations about Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe’s plans to issue such a stamp this year.
The board is planning to discuss the issue at an August meeting in Washington or sooner.
Even if the governors agree to the planned stamp, the controversy may make it difficult for the stamp to be manufactured and issued this year under a timetable previously disclosed by stamp officials.
Donahoe announced Sept. 26, 2011 , that he was dropping a Postal Service rule requiring that a person had to be dead five years before they could be honored on a U.S. stamp.
The move was controversial with some collectors, but the postmaster general, who directly controls stamp images, did not retreat from the idea.
Donahoe’s plan was ” beginning next year” (2012) to place the images of “acclaimed musicians, sports stars, writers, artists and other nationally-known figures on U.S. postage stamps – while they are still alive,” according to a press release.
At his June 21 confirmation hearing, Miller volunteered that placing living people on U.S. stamps would be a very bad idea.”
“I can’t imagine the demands from every direction,” he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which handles postal nominations.
“For every friend you would make, you would make thousands of enemies,” Miller said.
The article also reported that USPS had already notified the first person scheduled to be honored on the stamp.