PRA battle set to spill into next year

A report from the National Journal says that the pitched Congressional battle over the Performance Rights Act is unlikely to be concluded this year, and will likely continue on Capitol Hill into the year 2010.

Judiciary Committee Chairmen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in the Senate and John Conyers (D-MI) in the House each pushed the bill through committee, but neither seems particularly sanguine about prospects for a floor vote.

This is particularly true in the House, where the NAB has rounded up over 250 members who support the Local Radio Freedom Act, which is in direct opposition to PRA. That amounts to better than 30 votes more the 218 needed to guarantee a floor victory.

NJ says members of both sides met at the behest of Leahy and Conyers, but merely restated their positions and then dug in their heels.

RBR-TVBR observation: This does not come as a surprise. But the record companies aren’t going to give up, so if this matter isn’t concluded in 2010, it’ll spill into the schedule of the 112th Congress in 2011, and so on.