[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H248]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           THE PLOT THICKENS

  (Mr. MILLER of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, the 
plot surrounding our Speaker's book deal continues to thicken.
  We find that while the Contract With America is committed to open 
meetings that the Speaker is, in fact, committed to a series of closed 
meetings; first, the closed meetings between he and Rupert Murdoch at 
which $4.5 million is on the table and the future of telecommunications 
policy and foreign ownership of our airwaves is also on the table, a 
meeting the Speaker said never took place, and now there are four or 
five versions of what took place at that meeting.
  Now we see that the Republican leadership is now committed to a 
closed meeting between the heads of the telecommunications corporations 
in this country and the Republican membership, no cameras, no press, no 
Democrats, no balance, but to privately have a meeting because it is 
only in private that they could have an honest discussion about the 
future of America's airwaves and multi-billion-dollar decisions for the 
consumers.
  Somehow the Contract With America's commitment to open meetings rings 
a little hollow when the real meetings are held in private and in 
violation of House rules. The plot thickens.

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