May 2, 2018
Congressman Doug Collins, who represents the Ninth Congressional District of Georgia in the northeast part of the state, has been working for several years on a piece of legislation known as the Music Modernization Act (H.R. 5447 or MMA), which was mentioned in our Q&A with the Representative in Inside Democracy back in February.
After clearing the Judiciary Committee with unanimous approval, the House passed the MMA 415-0 and sent it to the Senate on April 25th. With 49 co-sponsors (26 Democrats and 23 Republicans) in the House, this bipartisan and measured bill should give some relief for those who despair of Congress acting on much needed and long-overdue reforms to a major law – in this instance, copyrights and royalties paid to musicians.