House Leaders Targeting Wednesday Vote on Register of Copyrights Bill

House leaders said they were scheduling a vote on HR-1695. The House Rules Committee appears likely to set a structured process for considering amendments to the bill during an anticipated Tuesday meeting, industry officials said. A Wednesday vote on HR-1695 is likely given the timing of the House Rules meeting and a Monday afternoon deadline for submitting amendments to the bill, lobbyists said. Amendments are due at 3 p.m. that day, House Rules said. House leadership decided to refer HR-1695 to the House Administration Committee but committee Chairman Gregg Harper, R-Miss., is expected to waive his committee's jurisdiction over the bill, lobbyists said.

Amendments are likely to include ones aimed at clarifying the parameters of the proposed seven-member panel to select and submit at least three register candidates to the White House, said Association of American Publishers Vice President-Legal and Governmental Affairs Allan Adler. House Judiciary Committee added the selection panel proposal to HR-1695 during its March markup via an amendment from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas (see 1703290066). The panel would include the librarian of Congress, House speaker, the House and Senate majority and minority leaders and the president pro tempore.

There's also a strong likelihood Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., will try to reintroduce elements of three amendments House Judiciary rejected at markup, several lobbyists said. Those amendments included one aimed at delaying the bill from taking effect until after Sept. 15, 2026 -- the end-date for Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden's term. A second rejected Lofgren amendment would have allowed either the librarian or president to fire the register.

Democratic Split?

Possible reintroduction of the Lofgren amendments would be another sign of what's perceived to be growing divisions within the House Democratic caucus over HR-1695, a music industry lobbyist said. Opposition from Lofgren and members aligned with her has been “getting a little nasty” in the weeks since the House Judiciary markup, amid charges that HR-1695 is aimed at “taking power away” from Hayden, the first African-American woman to lead the Library of Congress, the lobbyist said. That opposition included the circulation of a “Dear Colleague” letter from Democratic National Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and 11 other House Democrats earlier this month urging fellow Democrats to vote against HR-1695 (see 1704060064). Other signers included former Congressional Black Caucus Chairmen G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

Claims of a racially biased motive for advancing HR-1695 are false but show that a final House vote on the bill “isn't going to be as smooth as everyone hoped,” a music industry lobbyist said. The lobbyist said House Judiciary ranking member and CBC dean John Conyers, D-Mich., was a lead co-sponsor of the bill. Conyers and several other leading CBC members also circulated a letter in favor of HR-1695 (see 1704070043). Lofgren appears to have “gained some traction” in opposition to HR-1695, though it's not clear how significant Democratic opposition to the bill is, the music industry lobbyist said. House leadership's decision to schedule consideration of HR-1695 under a rule “tells us automatically that they know they can't muster up” the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, a tech industry lobbyist said. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has also voiced concerns about HR-1695 but “it's not clear if she's going to strongly push back against this,” another tech lobbyist said.

Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid pushed back Thursday against Lofgren's claims, saying during a briefing for Capitol Hill staffers that opponents are “grasping at straws." HR-1695 is not about taking power away” from Hayden, Kupferschmid said during the CA-led briefing. “It's about giving power to Congress and the American people to decide” who the next register should be. The bill is “a very important move in the right direction” that aims to improve the “long term” future of the Copyright Office, said Authors Guild Executive Director Mary Rasenberger during the briefing.

A Thursday letter from the CA and more than 50 other entities in support of HR-1695 also aimed to debunk opponents' claims. "A few who are interested in weakening copyright policy are trying to polarize debate with partisanship, personal aspersions, and ad hominem attacks,” the letter said. “This bill is not about any one President, any one Librarian, or any one Register.” The bill "reflects the consensus view of policymakers that presidential appointment and Senate confirmation puts the [CO] on a better footing to meet its statutory duties and serve the American people for generations to come," the letter said.

Kupferschmid told us he doesn't believe House leadership decided not to bring the bill under suspension because of a perceived lack of a two-thirds majority. “I think there's tremendous support for the bill and you'll see that reflected in the final vote,” he said. Lofgren wasn't “able to sway anyone in House Judiciary against the bill” during the markup “so I would be surprised” if she has been able to convince a significant number of House Democrats to oppose the bill, Adler said. “I think it's pretty clear that opponents of this bill have failed to generate any real traction” given House leaders' decision to move toward a floor vote, another content-side lobbyist said.

Looking Ahead

Stakeholders said they're also watching the upcoming Senate landscape for HR-1695, though relative support and opposition for the bill remain unclear amid lingering signs of concern from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and others. Some Senate Republicans also may be concerned the existing bill doesn't include enough input from their caucus, a music industry lobbyist said.

Several lobbyists said Senate Appropriations Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., is considering attaching a rider to a FY 2017 federal spending bill that would prohibit Hayden from hiring a new register before Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. Such a rider would be aimed at “giving all stakeholders time to figure out” how to deal with the register selection process in case work on a Senate companion to HR-1695 drags on, a tech lobbyist said. Shelby is planning to introduce the rider only if ongoing budget talks produce a final bill, which “is a big if at this point,” a tech lobbyist said.

“It would seem doubtful” the Shelby rider or other potentially controversial amendments would be attached to a continuing resolution aimed at forestalling a government shutdown that would otherwise occur after midnight April 28, Adler said. President Donald Trump's administration “has already made clear that they want to do a few things that represent promises that [Trump] made during his campaign and people are already edgy about the possibility of a shutdown as a result of that kind of battle going on,” Adler said. The Shelby rider “wouldn't rise to that level of controversy but the question becomes whether they will not take any amendments not related directly to funding.”