Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill is a total of $3.481 billion--$72 million above the fiscal year 2016 enacted bill. I thank our full committee chairman, Mr. Rogers of Kentucky, for understanding the challenges posed by years of cuts and providing an allocation to begin rebuilding the capacity of Congress to do the people's work. Chairman Graves funded critical investments with the additional allocation. He knows that if we were only discussing funding today, I would be with him in protecting the good work of the subcommittee. Specifically, I am pleased with the critical investments in the Copyright Modernization Project and the Historic Buildings Revitalization Trust Fund. The bill provides the Copyright Modernization Project with a 17 percent increase. This critical funding will enable the Copyright Office to hire the necessary staff to begin to make technological advancements to improve the way they do business. It is unacceptable in the year 2016 that copyright users have to make certain requests via paper in the 21st century. That is inefficient and a drag on commerce that is dependent on the copyright system. There is also report language included that makes it clear that the Library of Congress shall continue to defer to the Register of Copyrights on all copyright-related issues.…”