[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 150 (Tuesday, October 20, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S12730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HOUSE DELAY IN PASSAGE OF THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT, H.R. 
                                  2281

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am glad that the House Republican 
leadership relented and after several days' delay allowed the House to 
consider and adopt the conference report on the landmark Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act, H.R. 2281.
  Just two weeks ago, the Senate unanimously passed the Conference 
Report on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, H.R. 2281. This 
important legislation is based on the implementing legislation 
recommended by the Administration and introduced last year by Senators 
Hatch, Thompson, Kohl and me, to implement the new World Intellectual 
Property Organization (WIPO) copyright treaties. The bill provides the 
protection necessary to encourage copyright owners to make their works 
available over the Internet and in other digital formats. This 
legislation sets a standard for other nations who must also implement 
these treaties.
  The Senate bill was reported unanimously by the Senate Judiciary 
Committee and passed the Senate without opposition. The House-Senate 
conference over the last several weeks also led to all conferees 
signing the conference report and supporting the final version of the 
legislation. As the only Senate Democratic conferee I was pleased to 
serve on this conference and participate in working out agreements with 
House Republican and Democratic conferees.
  With the approval of the chairmen and ranking Democrats on both the 
House Judiciary Committee and the House Commerce Committee, this 
landmark legislation--which Senator Hatch has called the most important 
bill we will pass this year--seemed to have finally cleared the last 
hurdle and be ready to be sent to the President for enactment. On 
Thursday, October 8, Senator Hatch and I were both present on the 
Senate floor for Senate final passage and had been informed that the 
House leadership had determined to take up and pass the bill that very 
day.
  Surprisingly, the bill was not taken up in the House on Thursday or 
Friday or Saturday or Sunday. There was a threat that it would not be 
brought up by the House leadership at all, and I think that the Senate 
and the American people are entitled to an explanation.
  It turns out that the House Republican leadership had decided to hold 
this critical legislation hostage to petty partisan politics. According 
to reports in Roll Call on October 8 and 12, Reuters on October 10 and 
the Washington Post on October 14 and 15, House Republicans were mad 
that a pal of theirs was not hired to head the Electronic Industries 
Alliance. The hold on this legislation is to ``send a message.''
  Apparently, in the world of Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey and Tom 
DeLay, trade associations better hire their Republican friends or there 
will be retribution, including stalling action of important bipartisan 
legislation that promotes the national interest. This is childish 
behavior beneath the dignity of those who hold leadership positions in 
a House of Congress. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a good bill 
on which so many of us have worked so hard and cooperated so closely 
across the aisle, was finally allowed to be considered by the House and 
did pass. I thank the House Republican leaders for ending their pout in 
time for this landmark legislation to be adopted.
  This bill should help create jobs and economic opportunities to 
America's leading copyright-based industries. We all recognize that 
because the U.S. is the world-wide leader in intellectual property, the 
U.S. will be the main beneficiary if Congress enacts this legislation.
  Protecting and encouraging the intellectual creations of our citizens 
has always been a fundamental priority for our country and a 
responsibility of our national government. Our creative industries 
produce the material that makes the global information infrastructure 
something worth having. I want to ensure that the creators of movies 
and television and cable programming and recordings and books and 
computer software and interactive media continue to create, that their 
creativity is rewarded, that their creations are not stolen or pirated, 
and that those basic tenets are followed in all the world's markets.
  The 1998 report of the International Intellectual Property Alliance 
confirms the importance of copyright-based industries to our American 
economy and our economic future. The report demonstrates, for the 
seventh straight year, that the U.S. copyright industries continue to 
be one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the U.S. economy. 
These industries are leading this country into the digital age and the 
21st century. Thanks goodness cooler heads finally prevailed and 
Congress was allowed to complete work on the Digital Millennium 
Copyright Act.

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