6/21/2018

4:00 pm

We just finished up our day on Capitol Hill, and as you heard from David and Cindi during our Facebook live, things are not fantastic, but we are doing ok!

Right before lunch, we met with Joe Keely (Chairman Goodlatte’s Counsel) to give us a better insight on where the bill stands, and what sort of timeline we are looking at on getting the bill moving and on to the House Floor. Joe pointed out that there is a lot going on right now (immigration, prep for elections etc.) and we know that these things will take precedence over small claims, but we want to make sure that the House Judiciary Committee has not forgotten about small claims and how important it is to photographers across the country. This was a good meeting, and we are hoping that after the dust settles from everything that small claims will continue to move forward. 

After meeting with Joe we met with Representative Issa’s (R-CA) Office. We haven’t met with this office in some time and wanted to make sure to provide them with some updates and answer any questions that may have arisen in the past few months. This meeting was great and the perfect opportunity to touch base and urge the Representative’s Office to continue to focus on small claims.

Once we left Representative Issa’s Office your advocacy team jumped on a conference call with the Copyright Alliance. As a reminder, PPA works closely with the Copyright Alliance on small claims. Further, Copyright Alliance does a great job of uniting various entities from the copyright world and making sure we can all united behind important copyright topics, including small claims. This conference call was fantastic and was a great way to see what other entities are doing to make sure small claims happens!

After this action-packed day today, we are on the way to the airport! This trip to D.C was good and we hope they will continue to get better! How that happens is up to YOU! Be sure to keep sending your emails! 
 

6/21/18

12:00 pm

Yesterday’s meetings on the Hill went great and we are excited about our meetings today! 

We started the day meeting with Zoe Oreck, Legislative Counsel of Congressman Jeffries' (NY) office. As a reminder, Congressman Jeffries is the one who originally introduced H.R 3945-CASE act. We wanted to circle back to Zoe and talk about what else we need to do to get the CASE act through this year. She is very optimistic about our progress and will touch base with us on what else we can be doing. One thing that is important to highlight is that she has heard from various members of Congress about getting letters! That means YOUR congressional members are thinking about the CASE act! 

After leaving Representative Jeffries' office we went on to meet with Representative Johnson’s (LA) office. We haven’t met with this office in some time and they have also gotten a new staffer so it was important to circle back and update them on what has been going on with the CASE act. This was a great meeting and had plenty of great questions! We hope to hear from Congressman Johnson’s office in the future and hopefully, soon he will join our ever-growing list of co-sponsors. 

We just left Johnson’s office and are now heading to meet with Chairman Goodlatte’s (VA) staffer Joe Keeley. This meeting is to talk about the CASE act in more depth and see what else needs to happen to make sure that the CASE act makes it to markup. As a reminder Chairman Goodlatte and Joe are important because they determine the outlook and progress of the CASE act! 

Stay tuned and continue to send your letters! 
 

6/20/18

10:00 am

Good Morning PPA! 

Our advocacy team is heading back to D.C again! As many of you know there is a lot going in Congress right now and we need to make sure that Copyright Small Claims stays on the radars of many of our Congressional members. 

During this trip, we will continue to meet with various members of the House Judiciary to ensure that Small Claims is able to get to a markup and eventually the entire House Floor. 

Some of the members we are meeting with during this trip include Representative Johnson (LA), Demings (FL), Chabot (OH), Issa (NY), and Jackson Lee (TX).

As always we will keep you updated throughout our trip. Be on the lookout for our Facebook Live episodes, but, in the meantime, continue to send your letters! Your letters ARE making a difference and we need to make sure we keep the pressure up!