Senate Seen Slowing Down Consideration of Register of Copyrights Bill
Momentum on the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act significantly slowed in the month since Senate Judiciary Committee leaders filed their version of the bill (S-1010) due to a confluence of factors, lawmakers and industry lobbyists said in interviews. S-1010 and House-passed HR-1695 would make the register a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed position with a 10-year term (see 1704260062). Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., filed S-1010 in early May in a bid to ride the momentum that House passage generated days earlier (see 1705020057 and 1705030060). House Judiciary Committee leaders are continuing to push for Senate passage but also are moving forward on work on other Copyright Office modernization issues.
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“We’re looking at everything in” S-1010, given concerns about pursuing a shift in the register appointment process separately from other CO modernization issues, said Senate Rules Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. Rules asserted primary jurisdiction over S-1010 after earlier questions about whether that committee or Judiciary would take the lead. Shelby and other senators are interested in “going back” to pursuing a comprehensive CO modernization bill that would include changes to the register appointment process and language giving the CO some degree of additional autonomy from the Library of Congress, said a content industry lobbyist.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told us he's “focused on getting the Senate to pick up” S-1010 and “we are working on other” CO modernization issues while that debate continues. House Judiciary will move forward on them only “when we reach a consensus,” Goodlatte said. House Judiciary staffers continued to talk with copyright stakeholders since passage of HR-1695, indicating they “want to talk right now about CO modernization and nothing else,” a music industry lobbyist said: “It’s not like they’re not working on” music licensing and other copyright legislative issues but “they are telling us to hold off” on those other issues "until they get the CO modernization legislation under control.”
House IP Subcommittee Chief Counsel Joe Keeley emailed stakeholders Thursday indicating a “legislative discussion draft concerning the remainder” of issues included in a December CO modernization-centric legislative proposal from Goodlatte and House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., “is up next.” That proposal included language keeping the CO as part of the legislative branch but would grant the office some more autonomy. The proposal also endorsed the CO 2013 plan for establishing an alternative copyright small claims process (see report in the Oct. 1, 2013, issue) and recommended new requirements for updates to CO IT infrastructure (see 1612080061).
Calls to fold S-1010 provisions into a comprehensive CO bill gained traction in the weeks since chatter began that Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden paused her search for a permanent replacement for ousted Register Maria Pallante, said lobbyists. Hayden confirmed that Thursday (see 1706080056). Goodlatte originally fast-tracked the stand-alone HR-1695 because of concerns Hayden planned to move forward with selecting a new register despite top lawmakers seeking a delay (see 1703230068).
Hayden’s move to pause the register search appears to have reduced Senate appetite to fast-track S-1010 and led to an “exploration of an alternative conversation” on how to address CO modernization, a tech sector lobbyist said. Shelby and others now view S-1010 as “a bit of a non-sequitur” that supporters haven’t adequately justified, the lobbyist said. A music industry lobbyist said conventional wisdom is that S-1010 is “stalled” until lawmakers reach a consensus on other CO modernization issues, particularly the degree of additional autonomy Congress is willing to grant the office.
Other factors also are influencing the Senate’s slowdown on S-1010, including some lawmakers’ continued unease about making the register a presidentially appointed position given President Donald Trump’s ongoing political controversies, lobbyists said. “Even if this bill passes, can we expect this administration to prioritize naming a register” since Trump still needs to select nominees for about 1,100 federal positions requiring Senate confirmation, a tech lobbyist asked. “Since a variety of departments don’t have top jobs filled, I think there’s a fear the appointment of a new register would be way down on the priority list.”