WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fourteen members of the House of Representatives and a trio of Senators have added their support to the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) — a resolution opposing “any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge” on local broadcast radio stations.
This raises the number of co-sponsors to 138 in the House and 18 in the Senate.
Adding their support recently for the Local Radio Freedom Act in the House are Reps. Jack Bergman (R-MI-1), Larry Bucshon (R-IN-8), John Carter (R-TX-31), Liz Cheney (R-WY-AL), Vicky Hartzler (R-MO-4), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA-6), Trent Kelly (R-MS-1), Darin LaHood (R-IL-18), Frank Mrvan (D-IN-1), Amata Radewagen (R-AS-DL), Tom Rice (R-SC-7), Tim Ryan (D-OH-13), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD-2) and Chris Stewart (R-UT-2). Adding their support for the resolution in the Senate are Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS).
Reps. Kathy Castor (D-FL-14) and Steve Womack (R-AR-3) are the principal cosponsors of the Local Radio Freedom Act in the House of Representatives. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and John Barrasso (R-WY) are the lead cosponsors of a companion resolution in the Senate.
And, it has the support of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). The group expressed their thoughts penned Friday (6/11) in a letter to Congressional leaders.
Specifically, the NRB asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to support the LRFA in order to “protect local radio stations that play music as part of their programming from having to pay new performance royalties that would cripple, and in some cases decimate, the ability of such radio stations to continue operations.”
