I urge the Committee to account for this aggressive budget authorization.

Funding for the Trust can also be used to help us make good on our long-overdue promise to provide safe, decent and affordable housing to the millions of Gulf Coast families still being affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Let me also say, to Mr. Newberry, I think you have made an excellent case here today, but none of us, I think, believe that performance artists don't deserve to be paid.

Am I to understand that, say, the big copyright holders who invest and who promote and who charge the artists for every aspect of the promotion and whatever they do, they are not getting a return on investment?

So they're not deducting this from the artists' earnings at all?

Well----

I do not want to see small broadcasters, minority broadcasters, out of business.

Today's hearing on the Performance Rights Act of 2009, H.R. 848, is an important first step in finally addressing an issue that has remained unsolved for a number of years.

But in modernizing the statutes, I'm determined that we do not do so in a way that diminishes the voice of minority broadcasters.

Most of us believe that, when these radio stations play this music, that there are people that still go out and buy records.

There is no doubt that the Committee must step up to the plate and update the copyright laws to reflect the fact that musical performances are shared today in ways that were never envisioned when the copyright laws were last updated.