[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 15, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8265-S8266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TRAVEL OVERSEAS

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, the Justice Department is out of control. 
Evidence is mounting that officials at the Department's Antitrust 
Division has been traveling around the world urging foreign governments 
to join them in their witch hunt against Microsoft.
  The Administration is offering a helping hand to U.S. competitors 
overseas. While foreign governments work hard to protect their most 
important industries, our Justice Department is assisting those foreign 
governments in their efforts to keep one of America's most vibrant, 
innovative, and successful companies out of their markets.
  In a letter sent yesterday to Attorney General Janet Reno, my 
colleagues Senators  Sessions, Abraham, and Kyl raised provocative 
questions about the activities of Justice Department officials 
overseas. They have learned that Joel Klein and his staff at the 
Department's Antitrust Division are busily recruiting their foreign 
counterparts to join in their war against Microsoft.
  First and foremost, Mr. President, I would like to know what Justice 
Department officials, whose work focuses exclusively on issues here at 
home, are doing traveling overseas at taxpayer's expense. According to 
the letter, in the last 6 months, Joel Klein has traveled to Japan, 
Russell Pittman, chief of the Competition Policy Section of the 
Antitrust Division has visited Brazil, Dan Rubinfeld, chief economist 
for the Antitrust Division has gone to Israel, and Deputy Assistant 
Attorney General Douglas Melamed spent a week in Paris in June.
  At a time when Joel Klein has been complaining that his division does 
not have enough money or people to do its job effectively, he and his 
staff are traveling around the world on the Justice Department's dime. 
And they are using those foreign visits as a bully pulpit to tout the 
merits of their case against Microsoft and to encourage foreign 
governments to join in the attack.
  This activity is reprehensible. It is even more egregious when one 
notes that it is being financed by the American people--many of whom 
may wind up losing their jobs and their livelihoods if Joel Klein is 
successful.
  We need some answers, Mr. President. Does the Attorney General 
consider such activities on the part of the Antitrust Division 
legitimate? Is Joel Klein working on behalf of U.S. taxpayers or 
against them? How much is the antitrust division spending to send its 
employees around the world? Which foreign competitors have benefited?
  Here is the evidence my colleagues have compiled to date:
  Joel Klein visited Japan to meet with the Japanese Fair Trade 
Commission last December. A month later, the Trade Commission raided 
Microsoft's Tokyo offices, confiscating thousands of company documents.
  When Russell Pittman went to Brazil in May, he spoke publicly to 
senior Brazilian government officials responsible for antitrust 
enforcement in that country, outlining the Justice Department's case 
against Microsoft in detail. Nine days later, the Brazilian government 
announced its intention to begin legal proceedings against the company.
  A quote from Mr. Pittman at this event is particularly troubling, 
and, I might add, somewhat ironic. He accused Microsoft of behaving 
``like an arrogant monopolist, even acting arrogantly in its relations 
with the antitrust authorities. It will receive from these agencies 
what it deserves.'' Who is calling whom arrogant? A Government 
bureaucrat on a taxpayer-funded jaunt to Brazil? If the situation were 
not so serious, I would find this quote to be quite ironic, Mr. 
President.

  In Israel in May, Dan Rubinfeld gave a public speech on the 
department's case against Microsoft to an audience that included 
Israeli public officials responsible for antitrust enforcement. He 
later met privately, along with his sidekicks from the Federal Trade 
Commission, with a group of Israeli Government officials to outline the 
Department of Justice's complaint against Microsoft.
  Not surprisingly, the Israeli Government is now in discussions with 
Microsoft concerning its business practices in that country.
  And finally, on June 8, Douglas Melamed briefed the OECD's 
Competition Law and Policy Committee in Paris on the strengths of the 
department's case against Microsoft. The OECD Committee includes 
officials from Europe, Japan, Canada, and Brazil.
  I applaud Senators Sessions, Abraham, and Kyl for bringing this issue 
to light, Mr. President. It is just one in a series of steps by the 
administration to tie the hands of successful U.S. companies.
  The American people deserve to know how and why the administration is 
using their money and why thousands of jobs in my home State of 
Washington and across the United States are being put on the line by a 
contemptuous group of bureaucrats over at the Justice Department.
  I demand that Attorney General Reno do right and answer the questions 
raised by my colleagues promptly and completely.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

[[Page S8266]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gorton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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