Semi-postal stamps are postage stamps sold at a premium to support a cause determined by the USPS to be in the national interest.  The first of these was issued in 1988 to support Breast Cancer Research (BCR).  Since then nearly $90 million has been raised through semi-postals to support BCR.

Save the Vanishing Species stamps were issued from 2011 to 2018. 

 In November of 2017, under a new program, The Semi-Postal Authorization Act, semi-postal stamps became available for Alzheimer’s Awareness.  Under this program, the USPS can issue 5 semi-postal stamps over a 10 year period, with only one of these stamps to be sold at a time for a period of two years.  

The next semi-postal, the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Stamp, will be issued near the end of 2019. 

The Semi-Postal Authorization Act gives the USPS authority to select the causes and issue the stamps.  H.R 111 sponsored in 2019 by Michael Burgess (TX-26) would move that authority to Congress, should it pass.