May 24, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
News
House Votes to Limit Powers of First Black Librarian of Congress
I
n a vote of 378 to 48,
the House passed leg-
islation to take power
away from the current
Librarian of Congress,
Dr. Carla Hayden.
The legislation, H.R.
1695, was authored by
House Judiciary Chair-
man Bob Goodlatte (R-
Va.) and ranking member
John Conyers (D-Mich.),
would limit the powers
of the librarian. It is ex-
pected to pass the Senate
and be signed into law by
President Trump.
The bill makes the head
of the Copyright Office,
the Register of Copy-
rights, a presidential
appointment that would
have to be confirmed by
the Senate, rather than
an appointment by the
Librarian of Congress,
as it has been since 1870.
The bill also limits the
position of Register of
Copyrights to a ten-year
term.
The bill text reads,
“This bill amends federal
copyright law to require
the President, with the
advice and consent of
the Senate, to appoint a
Register of Copyrights
from a list of at least
three individuals…” and,
“The bill limits the term
PHOTO WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
By Lauren Victoria
Burke (NNPA Newswire
Contributor)
Carla Hayden was appointed the
14th Librarian of Congress by
President Barack Obama on Feb.
24, 2016.
of office for the Regis-
ter of Copyrights to 10
years, but the individual
may be reappointed sub-
ject to the same require-
ments established in this
bill. The President may
remove the Register of
Copyrights from office
and must notify both
chambers of Congress of
any such removal.”
According to the Li-
brary Journal, as Presi-
dent Obama considered
his choice to fill the
Librarian of Congress
position in 2015, the Re-
publican-controlled U.S.
Senate passed a bill to
limit the term of that po-
sition to ten years. “After
[the bill] was approved in
the House of Representa-
tives,” President Obama
signed it into law on No-
vember 5, 2015.
The previous Librarian
of Congress, James Bill-
ington, served in the po-
sition for 28 years.
President
Barack
Obama
appointed
Hayden the 14th Librar-
ian of Congress on Feb-
ruary 24, 2016. She is the
first African American
to hold the position, as
well as the first woman to
be the Librarian of Con-
gress, in the agency’s his-
tory. On March 23, leg-
islation was introduced
to block Hayden from
appointing the next Reg-
ister of Copyrights. That
legislation passed the
House on April 26.
Supporters of the bill
argued that the legis-
lation would help to
modernize the Copy-
right Office and make
it more accountable to
Congress. Attempts to
contact the office of Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.)
for details on why he au-
“
wood.”
The entertainment in-
dustry pushed hard for
the passage of H.R. 1695.
It’s likely that the selec-
President Donald Trump
would, in essence, run the
Copyright Office
thored H.R. 1695, were
not answered.
“This bill serves no
purpose other than to
take power away from
the Librarian of Con-
gress and give it to pow-
erful lobbyists, who will
have a major say in who
runs the Copyright Of-
fice,” wrote Michael Mas-
nick on TechDirt.com on
April 26. “It’s a bad bill,
and it’s a gift to Holly-
tion of the Librarian of
Congress will be the fo-
cus of attention of the
power of the entertain-
ment lobby moving for-
ward now that senators
will play a role in confir-
mation.
The bill to limit
Hayden’s power arrives
six months after she re-
moved Maria Pallante
from the position of Reg-
ister of Copyrights in Oc-
tober 2016. Many in the
entertainment industry
were said to be unhappy
with Pallante’s removal.
“The Library of Con-
gress, through the Reg-
istrar of Copyrights,
plays a referee or um-
pire role in this complex
new game; librarians,
because they curate and
compile content, have
traditionally been pro-
tectors of copyright and
works of authors and
artists and balanced pub-
lic and cultural interests
in the free flow and use
of that content,” Chris-
topher Chambers, a pro-
fessor of media studies
at Georgetown Univer-
sity told NBC BLK. “Big
See LIBRARIAN on page 11
Information is powerful.
The power is
in your hands.
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