Chris Smith: “on behalf of the majority of the committee, I want to express our strong support for this amendment. This amendment, the…”

“on behalf of the majority of the committee, I want to express our strong support for this amendment. This amendment, the Watson-Issa amendment, will continue to support programs similar to those that were begun in fiscal year 2004. The State Department has designed programs to target areas of the world that have significant rates of intellectual property rights piracy with unique law enforcement assistance. This assistance has been tailored to particular activities in various regions of the world. It is critical to support the intellectual property rights community, Mr. Chairman, as the United States is the world's single largest creator, producer and exporter of copyrighted materials. Rampant piracy of creative works poses a significant risk to U.S. creative work products, including music, movies, video games and other software. As the U.S. copyright industry alone accounts for nearly 6 percent of this Nation's GDP, it is an economic security issue as well for the United States. Mr. Chairman, I commend my two colleagues for offering this very important amendment. The Acting CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson). The amendment was agreed to. Sequential Votes Postponed in Committee of the Whole The Acting CHAIRMAN.…”