diff --git a/src/requests/sessions.py b/src/requests/sessions.py
index 731550de88..4d3188696a 100644
--- a/src/requests/sessions.py
+++ b/src/requests/sessions.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 from .auth import _basic_auth_str
 from .compat import Mapping, cookielib, urljoin, urlparse
 from .cookies import (
-    RequestsCookieJar,
+    _copy_cookie_jar,
     cookiejar_from_dict,
     extract_cookies_to_jar,
     merge_cookies,
@@ -471,9 +471,8 @@ def prepare_request(self, request):
             cookies = cookiejar_from_dict(cookies)
 
         # Merge with session cookies
-        merged_cookies = merge_cookies(
-            merge_cookies(RequestsCookieJar(), self.cookies), cookies
-        )
+        session_cookies = _copy_cookie_jar(self.cookies)
+        merged_cookies = merge_cookies(session_cookies, cookies)
 
         # Set environment's basic authentication if not explicitly set.
         auth = request.auth
diff --git a/tests/test_requests.py b/tests/test_requests.py
index 75d2deff2e..5aa9ee8c7f 100644
--- a/tests/test_requests.py
+++ b/tests/test_requests.py
@@ -469,6 +469,33 @@ def test_cookielib_cookiejar_on_redirect(self, httpbin):
         assert cookies["foo"] == "bar"
         assert cookies["cookie"] == "tasty"
 
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("jar", (
+        requests.cookies.RequestsCookieJar(),
+        cookielib.CookieJar()
+    ))
+    def test_custom_cookie_policy_is_persisted(self, httpbin, jar):
+        """Verify a custom CookiePolicy is propagated on each session request."""
+
+        class TestCookiePolicy(cookielib.DefaultCookiePolicy):
+            """Policy to restrict all cookies from localhost (127.0.0.1)."""
+            def __init__(self):
+                cookielib.DefaultCookiePolicy.__init__(self, blocked_domains=['127.0.0.1'])
+
+        # Establish session with jar and set some cookies.
+        s = requests.session()
+        s.cookies = jar
+        s.get(httpbin("cookies/set?k1=v1&k2=v2"))
+        assert len(s.cookies) == 2
+
+        # Set policy
+        s.cookies.set_policy(TestCookiePolicy())
+        
+        # No cookies were sent to our blocked domain and none were set.
+        resp = s.get(httpbin("cookies/set?k3=v3"))
+        assert "Cookie" not in resp.request.headers
+        assert len(s.cookies) == 2
+        assert "k3" not in s.cookies
+
     def test_requests_in_history_are_not_overridden(self, httpbin):
         resp = requests.get(httpbin("redirect/3"))
         urls = [r.url for r in resp.history]