Patrick Leahy: “in the waning days, weeks and months of the 108th Congress, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were working hard…”

“in the waning days, weeks and months of the 108th Congress, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were working hard to pass important bipartisan legislation that would have protected America's innovators and artists, made more spectrum available for broadband services, enhanced 911 services, and fixed a technical glitch that was threatening the Universal Service Fund. Unfortunately, others were apparently working just as hard to obstruct these measures. This obstruction was intended only to force the Senate into passing legislation that everyone knew was doomed in the House. It was a flawed plan that was destined to fail. And fail it did, but not before it also prevented enactment of critically important and bipartisan intellectual property legislation. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act will go down as a victim of this obstructionism. This was an uncontroversial intellectual property bill that would have protected the rights of those who lead the United States' intellectual property industry. That industry makes the United States the global leader in innovation, and it deserves our support.”