Joe Crowley: “I thank my friend and colleague from New York (Mr. Nadler) for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Goodlatte…”

“I thank my friend and colleague from New York (Mr. Nadler) for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member Nadler, Congressman Doug Collins, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, and all of my friends on the Judiciary Committee for working in such a bipartisan fashion to get this important bill to the floor. We all remember the iconic tune from the 1970s, ``I Write the Songs.'' First performed by Captain and Tennille and made popular by David Cassidy and, of course, Barry Manilow, the song encapsulates the universality of music. While we rightly celebrate the artists and singers behind these hits and these great songs, there often are a number of individuals who work just as hard to make that song a hit. Because to make a great song, you need not just the writers and the singers, but also engineers, technicians, and producers, people like my friend Mike Clink, as well as Darrell Brown. They may not be as famous as Guns N' Roses or LeAnn Rimes, the folks they helped produce, but they are equally important when it comes to the process of making that music. But they are not often given the credit or compensation they so rightly deserve. With this bill, that will finally change. We are making important updates to music copyright law to make sure that everyone with a role in making hits that get stuck in our heads gets paid for their fair share.…”