There are now not one but two bills in the House that involve imposing a performance royalty on AM and FM radio. But on the plus side, the number of legislators opposing any such thing is growing.
Legislators are expressing opposition by signing on as co-sponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act.
The key text of LRFA is “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 such public performance of sound recordings.”
New to the co-sponsor list are four members of the House of Representatives. They are John Fleming (LA-4), Jody Hice (GA-10), Mark Meadows (NC-11) and Candice Miller (MI-10).
That brings the total in the House to 170, and they are joined by 13 senators.
Support for LRFA in the House of Representatives, and therefore opposition to the two bills, is now over three-fourths of the way to critical mass – that would be the 218 members it takes to constitute a majority in the legislative body.
