[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 97 (Friday, June 27, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S8857]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     HILARY B. ROSEN, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE RECORDING INDUSTRY 
                         ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I come to the floor today to offer 
congratulations and heartfelt appreciation for the exceptional work of 
Hilary Rosen, Chair and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of 
America. Hilary will step down at the end of this year, after 17 years 
with the RIAA. She leaves a legacy of remarkable efforts to ensure that 
innovations are protected while finding legitimate new venues in the 
Digital Age. She has accomplished a great deal while at the same time 
ushering the organization, and the music industry, through extremely 
trying years.
  After matriculating at George Washington University and earning a 
Bachelor of Arts in International Business, Hilary devoted her energies 
to working for a former Governor of New Jersey in addition to two 
senatorial transition teams, those of my distinguished colleague and 
former colleague, Dianne Feinstein and Bill Bradley. She was an 
accomplished advocate and began her own consulting firm in 1987. 
Hilary's hard work and talent were rewarded in 1998 when she assumed 
the position of Chair and CEO at the RIAA.
  She has represented the music industry with both tenacity and good 
humor. While the Internet has ushered in a new era of information and 
communication capabilities, we are now well aware of the dangers posed 
by this innovation. These dangers take many forms: the security issues 
that result when we have achieved so much interconnectedness, the 
proliferation of child pornography that seeks to exploit society's most 
vulnerable, and of course the threat posed to copyright holders by 
those who distribute, for free, the work products of artists. Hilary 
has made genuine headway, sometimes single-handedly, in harnessing the 
power of the Internet to further the goals of the music industry while 
helping in the fight against the worst abuses of technology.
  But her political activities extend well beyond the boundaries of the 
organization she leads. She was a founding member of Rock the Vote, a 
group which has successfully sought to reach out to younger Americans, 
imbuing those coming of age with the belief that they can have a 
positive impact on our political processes. And she sits on numerous 
not-for-profit boards including the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 
Y.E.S. to Jobs, and the National Cancer Foundation. Looking at the list 
of groups she is involved with, the variety of causes she champions 
rivals the diversity of artists and labels she represents.
  We know that her partner, Elizabeth Birch, and their twins, Jacob and 
Anna, will enjoy having more time with Hilary. If past experience is a 
predictor of future performance, she will shine in whatever endeavor 
she next chooses.

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