How Many Members Of Congress Won’t Play ‘Fair’?

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Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Marsha Blackburn may be facing a stiff headwind in their effort to get the House of Representatives to pass the “Fair Play Fair Pay Act.”


As of Friday afternoon (3/31), the The Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) now has 168 co-sponsors in the House and 21 in the Senate—along with a mountain of support from the NAB.

The numbers reflect the addition of a trio of house members who have signed-on as LRFA co-sponsors: Reps. Ted Budd, Liz Cheney and Austin Scott.

Reps. Michael Conaway (R-TX) and Gene Green (D-TX) are the principal cosponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act (H. Con. Res. 13) in the House of Representatives.

Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) introduced a companion resolution in the Senate (S. Con. Res. 6). Among the key supporters in the Senate for the LRFA is Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense. Cochran became a co-sponsor of the Senate legislation on March 23.

The Act reads, “Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over the air, or on any business for the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station broadcast over the air.”

The “Fair Play Fair Pay Act” seeks to create “a modern and uniform system of rules governing music licensing for digital and terrestrial radio broadcasts.”

RBR + TVBR RELATED READ: Is ‘Fair Play’ A Threat To Local Radio Freedom?