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Gingrich’s Book Deal Prompts Proposal To Rein In Royalties Ethics Committee Calls For Limit Of $20,400 A Year

From Wire Reports

The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday proposed a new rule to prohibit members from earning more than $20,400 a year in book royalties, saying the step was necessary since Speaker Newt Gingrich’s book deal “creates the impression of exploiting one’s office for personal gain.”

If the House leadership agrees to bring the rules change up before Congress quits for the year and it is adopted, it would take effect on Jan. 1 and could cut into royalties still due the speaker for his book, “To Renew America,” which sold well last summer, but is now offered at cut rates.

Under existing rules, book royalties are specifically excluded from the $20,400 outside income limit, and so Gingrich was able to agree to a $4.5 million advance from HarperCollins. That deal provoked an uproar and Gingrich later agreed to accept a $1 advance and a standard percentage of book sales as a royalty. The committee’s proposal would prohibit future advances.

HarperCollins told the committee this fall that it had shipped 660,000 copies of the book. It is not clear how many were sold, but if 500,000 were bought, the 15 percent royalty would come to $1.8 million. The first $675,000 of royalties was committed to Gingrich’s agent, Lynne Chu, so the check he can expect next April would be about $1.125 million.

Meanwhile, the committee said it found no evidence that Rep. Newt Gingrich discussed his book deal with Rupert Murdoch when the media magnate lobbied Gingrich during the book negotiations.

Murdoch owns the company that published Gingrich’s book.

“The committee found no evidence that either the book or the negotiations were mentioned” at the meeting on Nov. 28, 1994, in the Capitol, the panel said in a report approved by all 10 members.

Murdoch took two lobbyists to the meeting to discuss foreign ownership rules for broadcast stations. The committee found the meeting “was a courtesy visit of a routine nature” and the ownership issue was “mentioned only briefly in passing.”