[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     ANOTHER JEWEL FOR MR. MURDOCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kingston). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I must say I rise tonight, and I am very 
saddened by what we now know happened last week. We know that we are 
going to be taking up the tax bill this week, but last week we took up 
a bill that we thought we knew what was in. We thought it was closing 
loopholes. We thought that it was going to shut off tax breaks to 
owners who were selling their broadcast stations or whatever to 
minorities, the infamous Viacom issue.
  And today we now learn that tucked away in there was a nice $63 
million jewel for none other than Rupert Murdoch and, of course, Mr. 
Murdoch also happens to be the publisher of the Speaker's infamous 
book. Could there be a connect-the-dots here? I do not know. Everybody 
is saying ``Couldn't possibly be.''
  But I must say, as a Member of the House, I really feel we were all 
hoodwinked, because this did not come up in the House at all. It came 
up in the Senate, and apparently the Senate yielded, or the House 
yielded to the Senate in conference on this. None of us were told about 
this, and this was slipped in.
  I was fascinated to read in the press reports this weekend that 
people were blaming Senator Carol Moseley-Braun for this, and I love 
her quote in the press. She said, ``If I had one bit, one iota of the 
leverage the Speaker said I do, then I would have kept the tax 
incentives for everybody,'' because Senator Braun has made it very 
clear she approves of these kind of tax incentives.
  So is it not interesting that the tax incentives went down for every 
other person, every other person, group, or entity except Mr. Murdoch? 
Now, I suppose this could be just how the stars align, but we all know 
his long, longstanding tradition of having a book done by Margaret 
Thatcher when he needed things in the British Parliament, and, of 
course, he also published Ding Mao Mao's book in China when he was 
trying to get his broadcast license in there that we have been reading 
about even more this week, and I just think it is really time we blow 
the whistle on this kind of special-interest legislation.
  Somebody who has got a crown like he has got does not need any more 
crown jewels, not at a time we are killing school lunches, threatening 
student loans, zeroing out summer jobs, taking on Big Bird and 
everything else. Why does he get this huge, wonderful jewel?
  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. MILLER of California. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  I want to associate myself with her remarks.
  This is simply an outrageous misuse of the public trust to have this 
item slipped into a conference committee with no notification of the 
House Members that this matter was in the conference bill, in fact, the 
appearance of deliberately keeping it from the House Members so this 
could be voice-voted on the floor last week when Members were concerned 
with the deductibility of the health care insurance for the self-
employed, and then to find out that what we have in here is the most 
special of special deals for one person when the chairman of the 
Committee on Ways and Means and others strenuously objected to this 
kind of matter being brought forward, turned down amendments to try to 
make some rules that would apply to everybody across the board, now 
find out the 17 or 18 other similar deals were turned down, but the one 
for Rupert Murdoch, the one involving the Speaker, was now somehow felt 
into this legislation.
  We started out the 100 days with a book contract with Rupert Murdoch. 
Now we are ending it with all of the speculation about what that meant, 
and now, of course, the speculation is no longer speculation. Now we 
have the concrete treatment of Mr. Murdoch differently than anyone else 
in the United States at the behest of the leadership----
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Absolutely.
  Mr. MILLER of California. In the House and the Senate.
  I want to thank the gentlewoman for raising this issue.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. I thank the gentleman from California for bringing it 
up, because I really feel the Members were also led astray. Members on 
the conference committee on our side did not know this was happening, 
and I find it also amazing Mr. Murdoch stands there and with a straight 
face says, at least through his spokesman, he did not know about this; 
he did not seek it; and he did not particularly want it.
  So I would say he ought to give it back. He ought to give it back.
  Mr. MILLER of California. Since Mr. Murdoch is as successful as he 
is, when you consider all of the things that he has denied knowledge of 
that affect his business interests, over the last 100 days, but yet 
somehow he has tremendous success, and apparently it just falls on him.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. One of the other things I find really amazing is that 
he could be so successful, that this little $63 million jewel could 
roll off the table, and he just did not even really have to pay much 
attention to it. It must be nice. Think of the school lunches it would 
buy and the student loans it would provide.
  This is outrageous.
  

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