roundtable: Closed Republican Meetings on Telecommunications Legislation

roundtable: Closed Republican Meetings on Telecommunications Legislation

Closed Republican Meetings on Telecommunications Legislation

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Thu, 19 Jan 1995 16:17:15 -0500 (EST) 

Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 16:17:15 -0500 (EST)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
Subject: Closed Republican Meetings on Telecommunications Legislation
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950119151258.27853A-100000@access2.digex.net>


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FINS SPECIAL REPORT                                     January 19, 1995
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CLOSED REPUBLICAN MEETINGS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION
Democratic Leader Says "I Don't Know Anything" About Meeting

Washington, DC--Democratic House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt 
(D-MO) was questioned at a press conference held today (Jan 19) about 
unconfirmed reports circulating around Capitol Hill that, "today 
Congressman [Thomas J.] Bliley, Jr., (R-Va) and House Republicans are 
holding a closed meeting, which is not on the schedule, with Richard 
Murdoch and the CEOs of every major ... large telecommunications company. 
Democrats ... excluded from the meeting."  When asked what the purpose of 
that meeting is, and whether he knew anything about the meeting, Gephardt 
told reporters, "I don't know anything about the meeting."  The 
Democratic leader when on to say,
	Obviously, Members have the right and the ability to meet
	with constituents and to meet with representatives of and
	chief executives officers of companies.  We have laws 
	about open and public meetings in committees.  I would
	hope that if there is a discussion of issues about
	telecommunications or any other subject, that there would
	be an allowance for a committee meeting at some point, that
	it is open to the press and the public, where these issues
	can be discussed in the public.  This is public business.
	It doesn't mean that every meeting has to be a transcript.
	But at some point if we are going to move to change the 
	telecommunications policy of the country, we obviously
	need a lot of public discussion of it.

  This is the second major meeting or hearing on telecommunications held
by Republican members of Congress in which Democrats have been totally
shut out.  The Senate Committee on Commerce held a hearing Jan 9, 1995 on
Republican proposals for the future of telecommunications, in which no
Democrats were invited.  Republican leaders from the Senate and the House,
were called and appeared as witnesses with full press coverage, however,
as reported earlier [Fins-SR3-02, Politics of Telecommunications
Competition].

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