Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentleman very much for yielding, and I make the very point that there are three Members on this floor today…”

“I thank the gentleman very much for yielding, and I make the very point that there are three Members on this floor today from the Judiciary Committee who have an enormous amount of seniority, who have seen the long journey that our talented genius-based musical icons in our Nation have traveled to come to this point, and so I say congratulations. In the markup, I indicated that there was a harmonious sound coming from the Judiciary Committee and that it was evident that we could work together in a bipartisan manner. I thank the chairman, Mr. Goodlatte, and the ranking member, Mr. Nadler, who have been intimately involved; and I am reminded of all of those who have come in and out of my office through the years as I served on the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Committee some years back and that they were still traveling even in this year, 2018. So I applaud Mr. Collins and Mr. Jeffries for providing that musical tone. This is a very important bill. It is an important bill because it was an inconsistent patchwork that governed the industry that was in dire need of reframing, and the MMA 2018 addresses that patchwork. And specifically, under title II, it finally gives a just compensation to those artists who recorded works prior to 1972. First and foremost, the MMA is a proposition that is supported by both the majority of songwriters and publishers and the digital service providers.…”