Political Quotes

“I do not intend to take the full 5 minutes, but I do want to say that I support the McCollum amendment. I have great respect and admiration for Mr. Sensenbrenner who has worked long and hard on this issue, and admirably so. It is regrettable that over 3 years of discussions have not resulted in a negotiated settlement. This is something that should have been agreed to and negotiated, but I guess it was not meant to be. But the McCollum-Conyers substitute, it seems to me, is a reasonable and balanced alternative to the issue of music licensing, and of some importance is the Congressional Research Service finding that the McCollum substitute will exempt over 60 percent of all restaurants in the United States from paying music licensing fees to songwriters for music played over radio and television to their customers. This is small business week on the floor of the House. We are considering important legislation to help preserve the strength of the most important sector of our economy which employs more Americans than any other, and the amendment of the gentleman from Wisconsin includes an exemption for large chains and corporations who are able to pay their fair share of licensing fees to songwriters, many of whom I might also mention, are small businesses themselves; I am speaking of the song writers. The McCollum substitute concentrates on true small businesses, those restaurants and bars under 3,500 gross square feet.…”