Goodlatte Retirement Draws Speculation on Prospects for Bills to Update CO, Section 702
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte's decision to retire at the end of this Congress may increase pressure on Republicans to clear the path for passage of Goodlatte-led copyright and privacy legislation, but his departure likely won't change the long-term trajectory of House Judiciary there, industry officials and lobbyists told us. Goodlatte, R-Va., announced his plans Thursday. He was term-limited from serving again as Judiciary chairman, a role he held since the beginning of 2013. The end of Goodlatte's time as chairman “is a natural stepping-off point,” he said.
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“My work in the 115th Congress is far from done,” the legislator said: “There is much that I hope we can accomplish in the next year,” including “advancing protections of the freedoms and liberties enshrined in our Constitution.” Judiciary voted 27-8 last week to advance Goodlatte's USA Liberty Act (HR-3989), a compromise to update Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702 authority (see 1711080045). Goodlatte didn't mention his leadership of Judiciary's copyright legislative work, including the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act (HR-1695), which the House passed in April (see 1704200047, 1704250063 and 1704260062).
Privacy advocates had mixed views whether Goodlatte's retirement helps or hurts House floor consideration of HR-3989. House GOP leaders have been fighting vigorously against checks on President Donald Trump's surveillance powers, so they “may feel less motivated to oblige” Goodlatte's requests to move on it “since he won’t be there next year,” said Jake Laperruque, senior counsel with the Constitution Project. He noted House GOP leaders “hadn’t given any promises they would do so previously.”
“I actually think it makes it more likely” HR-3989 will either get floor action or be tacked onto must-pass legislation," said Cato Institute analyst Patrick Eddington. “I think Goodlatte has been a reliable vote for the House GOP leadership and I can’t recall seeing public criticism of his leadership of” Judiciary by Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) or Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.), Eddington said. But HR-3989 is also a “sham” that didn't add sufficient changes to increase privacy, he said.
Copyright lobbyists were split on how Goodlatte's retirement announcement would affect prospects for CO office Senate companion S-1010, which stalled in May (see 1705030060 and 1706090050). The Senate Rules Committee is delaying consideration of S-1010 at the behest of Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., a content industry lobbyist said. Shelby remains interested in considering the register of copyrights' selection process in combination with other CO modernization, the lobbyist said. Shelby favors separating the CO from the Library of Congress and placing it within the Department of Commerce, which the content industry opposes, the lobbyist said.
Goodlatte leaving “will only sharpen his resolve” to secure passage of HR-1695/S-1010 and other CO modernization legislation as part of a larger push to “define his legacy” on intellectual property, said IP law and policy firm Sentinel Worldwide CEO Steve Tepp. CO modernization remains the part of House Judiciary's legislative work that's the closest to completion, so Goodlatte and allies will make that their priority, he said. Copyright Alliance CEO Keith Kupferschmid is hopeful there might be some Senate movement on S-1010 early next year, but said it's unlikely progress of other legislation on CO modernization “is imminent.”
There was already speculation within the copyright community about where House Judiciary's legislative work would lead post-Goodlatte, so his retirement has “probably expedited that discussion,” Kupferschmid said. Stakeholders are aware there are “many moving pieces” affecting where the committee's copyright work could lead, including uncertainty about which House members will be on the committee next Congress and about which party will hold the majority, he said: “If we've learned anything” since 2013 “it's to take things day by day.”
It's too early to begin to know where Judiciary's copyright priorities will be next Congress, partly because Goodlatte has more than a year left in his chairmanship, Tepp said. Digital Media Association General Counsel Greg Barnes noted the amount of time remaining in this Congress. DiMA remains “hopeful that music licensing reform is one of the issues that falls at the top of his list of priorities," he said.