John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior), the minority whip of the Congress.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren) a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Kennelly), a departing member of our leadership.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Fazio), a departing member of our leadership.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and distinguished member of the House Committee on the Judiciary. (Ms. WATERS asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Barney Frank), a senior member from Massachusetts on the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Boucher), a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), one of our leadership members.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of this body, we are confronted with an overzealous and non- independent counsel report combined with a totally politicized process in the committee with party line votes on nearly every issue. And so, I want to remind my colleagues that I am witnessing the most tragic event of my career in the Congress, in effect a Republican coup d'etat, in process. We are using the most powerful institutional tool available to this body, impeachment, in a highly partisan manner. Impeachment was designed to rid this Nation of traitors and tyrants, not attempts to cover up extramarital affairs. This resolution trivializes our most important tool to maintain democracy. It downgrades the impeachment power into a partisan weapon that can be used with future presidents. Perhaps, hopefully, we may never ever use impeachment again after this experience. Now, I am personally outraged that we would decapitate the Commander in Chief at a time when we are at war abroad. Republicans sacrifice the national security by doing so. To be spending time of this House to smear our Commander in Chief when brave men and women are risking their lives for their country shocks the conscience. The failure by the Republican majority to allow a censure alternative shows again the perversely partisan process this is. I have been a Member here for some time and I cannot recall a single occasion when the Democrats denied the Republicans the ability to offer an alternative on a matter as momentous as this. Our Nation has been pushed to the edge of a constitutional cliff. We are about to inflict permanent damage on our Constitution, on our President, on the Nation and ourselves. We should not be here today. And history will not look kindly on the partisan passions that have brought us to this point.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Schumer), a distinguished member of the Committee on the Judiciary and Senator elect. (Mr. SCHUMER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), a distinguished member of the Committee on the Judiciary. (Mr. NADLER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield three minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Barrett), perhaps our newest member on the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS. Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, I shall not object. I want to indicate the cooperation and concurrence of this side with the proposal, and I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), the chairman, for the cooperation in both our staffs working this out. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. CONYERS. If the gentleman will yield, I would tell him, yes.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette). (Ms. DeGETTE asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Wexler), a distinguished member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, on October 9, 1998, I inserted a brief statement in the Record regarding S. 505, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. In my statement, I expressed strong support for the extension of the statutory term of copyright protection. I neglected to note how appropriate it was to name the bill after the late Sonny Bono. Although we on the Judiciary Committee are now fortunate to have Mary Bono amongst our ranks, I would like the record to reflect how much we miss Sonny. Members of Congress have very few bills named after them, and the Copyright Term Extension Act is a very fitting tribute to Sonny. But while I am happy to have honored Sonny in such a manner, I am not happy about the gamesmanship that accompanied its passage. The Republican leadership--at the behest of certain large restaurants who object to paying royalties to musical creators whose music is performed in their establishments--kidnapped term extension and used it as a hostage. To liberate the hostage, we were forced to pay a high ransom by attaching a second bill--misnamed ``fairness in music licensing''-- that deprives just compensation to songwriters and composers, particularly those who write as individuals and small businesses. In my statement, I referred to the combined bill as a ``compromise,'' so I want to clarify my use of that term. I used the word compromise not to indicate that the substance of the music licensing provision was arrived at through a fair negotiation between the restaurants and musical creators. Rather, I used the term compromise in a procedural sense, to merely indicate that something had happened to allow S. 505 to pass the Senate, to come to the House floor, and to be acceptable to a large number of legislators. I used the word ``compromise'' as ``a consequence of majority decision making'' to paraphrase a former House number, Abner Mikva. I did not mean to imply that the parties who ultimately must pay the ransom--the hundreds of thousands of songwriters, composers, music publishers and the performing rights organizations, BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, that so ably represent their interests--were willing signatories to the compromise. To the contrary, they were the hostages. They will now pay the price. They are the victims of the legislation and it would be unfair to characterize them, as we often do to victims of crime, as willing participants. If Sonny Bono had been here, he would have reminded us of these facts. His reminder would probably not have saved the hostages, but he would have instructed us, with wit and humor, about what is right and what is wrong. He would have told us that we were wrong to pass the fairness in music licensing legislation.