Music Modernization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5447, the Music Modernization Act.

It has already been said that this bill combines critical pieces of legislation to update our laws, including legislation that I authored, the Music Modernization Act, but it also represents the CLASSICS Act, the AMP Act, and rate standardization, things that have been negotiated for a long period of time.

As we have looked at this and we have talked about it, this is a bill today that comes to the floor with overwhelming support, not just on this floor, not just in the committee where it passed 32-0. It comes to this floor with an industry that many times couldn't even decide that they wanted to talk to each other about things in their industry, but who came together with overwhelming support and said this is where we need to be.

I can remember when the chairman first laid out a vision that would deal with copyright. Most thought it was a dream that would never happen. In fact, some thought we would never even get text that people could agree on. They were wrong, because we did.

I want to thank the leadership of Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Nadler for their tireless commitment to getting something done on copyright, which ultimately got us here. I thank their staffs: Joe Keeley, Lisette Morton, and Jason Everett.

Also in this, Mr. Speaker, there is someone whom I also want to thank who, not only in this bill but in many others, epitomizes to me what is good about this institution. The Music Modernization Act has put my friend Hakeem Jeffries and I in, again, a leading role and is living proof that a rural Member from northeast Georgia and a Democrat from Brooklyn can find common ground. With Hakeem and I, we know that we can come together with good product when we have the right intentions in mind.

Senators Hatch and Alexander have been champions in the Senate, where they have introduced companion legislation. Congressmen Issa, Rooney, and Crowley have all been key players, and many from different States have all taken part in this. As I have said earlier, they come from many places: David Israelite with NMPA; Bart Herbison from Nashville Songwriters Association International; Dina LaPolt, Michelle Lewis, and Kay Hanley from SONA; Beth Mathews from ASCAP; Mike O'Neill from BMI; Chris Harrison from Digital Media; Michael Beckerman from Internet Association; Mitch Glazier from Recording Industry Association of America; Todd Dupler and Darryl Friedman from Recording Academy; and others, such as Rick Carnes, Mike Huppe, Curtis LeGeyt, and many others; also my friends, one sitting behind me, Marsha Blackburn as well, who has been at the forefront of this.

Mr. Speaker, before I finish up in just a little bit, I do need to thank two more, and that is my staff, who have lived with me, who have worked with me for a long time: Brendan Belair, my chief of staff, who has kept us on target; and Sally Rose Larson. You couldn't meet a better steel magnolia, who has shown herself to be such an invaluable asset during this process.

Mr. Speaker, I want to end not with the bill. We will talk about it. But what brought me to this point and what brought me to this area and why this is so important today as we move forward for generations of others: I want to take you back in time almost 40-plus years to a state trooper's kid in north Georgia whose friends were books, whose friends were music, a radio, and songs that came true. It was in there that those songs that would come out, the music and lyrics, would take me to places far away from northeast Georgia and let me travel the world long before I could even drive a car.

When we talk about copyright and we talk about the creator's spirit, it is about the creator's spirit, what comes out of their heart, that comes out of their mind, that comes through their hands and out of their mouths and into the lives that touch everyone of whom we become a part.

This is about something bigger than ourselves. And my friend Hakeem and all the rest who have worked on this show that this place, when put properly forward, can touch the very soul of America. We have new ways of hearing that music nowadays, long past a radio. And the digital companies needed a place where they could give music to others, but songwriters needed to be fairly compensated.

When I think of my friends who write music--Hakeem, we have talked to so many--it is about hopes, it is about dreams, it is about everything in this place. Any one of us in here would think of a song that could make us think of the first time we fell in love, the first time we had our heart broken, the first time we laid someone to rest, the first time we got that joyful noise of a new job or a new hope.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we come carrying the dreams of those who have not even yet understood a song, of those who have not yet understood a melody. We carry those dreams into the future.

And I want to thank everybody who has been a part of this, because today the song lives on, because it all begins with that emotion, with that heart, and with that melody.

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