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IS this true?

is this true?

>>- STOP  OUR  GOV 'T  FROM TAMPERING WITH OUR
>>  FREE   E-MAIL !!!!
>>
>>  Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and
>>  continue using email:     The last few months have revealed an
>>  alarming trend in the Government of the United States attempting
>>  to quietly push through legislation that will affect your use of the
>>  Internet.  Under proposed legislation the U.S. Postal Service will
>>  be attempting to bilk email users out of "alternate postage fees".
>>  Bill 602P will permit the Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent surcharge
>>  on every email delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at
>>  source.  The consumer would then be billed in turn by the ISP.
>>  Washington D.C. lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay to
>>  prevent this legislation from becoming law.
>>
>>  The U.S. Postal Service is claiming that lost revenue due to the
>>  proliferation of email is costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per
>>  year.  You may have noticed their recent ad campaign "There is
>>  nothing like a letter".  Since the average citizen received about 10
>>  pieces of email per day in 1998, the cost to the typical individual
>>  would be an additional 50 cents per day, or over $180 dollars per
>>  year, above and beyond their regular Internet costs.  Note that
>>  this would be money paid directly to the U.S. Postal Service for a
>>  service they do not even provide.  The whole point of the Internet
>>  is democracy and non-interference.  If the federal government is
>>  permitted to tamper with our liberties by adding a surcharge to
>>  email, who knows where it will end.  You are already paying an
>>  exorbitant price for snail mail because of bureacratic efficiency.
>>  It currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from New
>>  York to Buffalo.
>>
>>  If the U.S. Postal Service is allowed to tinker with email, it will
>>  mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States.   One
>>  congressman, Tony Schnell (r) has even suggested a "twenty to
>>  forty dollar per month surcharge on all Internet service" above
>>  and beyond the government's proposed email charges.  Note that
>>  most of the major newspapers have ignored the story, the only
>>  exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of email
>>  surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th
>>  1999 Editorial.   Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away!
>>
>>  Send this e-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your
>>  friends and relatives to write to their congressman and say
>>  "No!"  to  Bill 602P.   It will only take a few moments of your time,
>>  and could very well be instrumental in killing a bill we don't want.
>>
>>  Kate Turner
>>  Assistant to Richard Stepp, Berger, Stepp and Gorman
>>  Attorneys at Law 216 Concorde Street, Vienna, Va.