The House Administration Committee reminded lawmakers last week that those seeking re-election will be prohibited from sending franked mass mailings after Aug. 4.

Franked mail regulations prohibit House Members from issuing mass mailings within 90 days of general, special or run-off elections.

[IMGCAP(1)] “Members and staff must be fully aware of all requirements and guidelines on the use of the frank,” House Administration Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) wrote in a July 16 “Dear Colleague” letter. “Do not rely on vendors to monitor or comply with deadlines.”

House guidelines define mass mailing as any 500 or more pieces of unsolicited mail with “substantially identical” content. The deadline does not apply to mail sent in direct response to constituent inquiries.

Dutko Hire. The Dutko Group Cos. has hired Philip Musser, a top adviser to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson and former Secretary (and Florida Senate candidate) Mel Martinez.

At Dutko, Musser, 32, will be a vice president. At HUD, he served as a liaison to the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, interest groups, state legislators, governors and Members of Congress.

Musser’s hiring marks a return to Dutko: From 1998 to 2000, he served as an assistant vice president at Dutko’s state and local lobbying affiliate, K*N*P.

Hot Off the Press. The Government Printing Office will begin offering copies of the 9/11 Commission’s final report today.

The “Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States” will be available free of charge on the agency’s Web site, GPOAccess.gov.

Printed copies of the report will also be available for $8.50 each, and can be purchased at GPO’s bookstore at 710 North Capitol St. NW. Orders will also be accepted online or via telephone, fax or mail.

Latino Museum Ahead? The House Administration Committee will hold a hearing at 1:30 p.m. today in Room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building to consider legislation to create a 23-member commission charged with developing a plan of action for a National Museum of the American Latino within the Smithsonian Institution. Witnesses include the bill’s chief co-sponsors, Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), as well as Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lawrence Small, Dr. Jonathan Yorba, executive director of Los Angeles’ La Plaza de Cultura y Artes Foundation, and Diane Camber of the Bass Museum in Miami.

The bill was reintroduced Tuesday by Becerra specifying that the museum would be established within the Smithsonian.

— Jennifer Yachnin, Louis Jacobson and Bree Hocking