Why It Matters
SESAC, which originally stood for the Society of European Stage Authors and Composers, is the client in this filing, listed as SESAC Rights Management Inc. The Congressional Research Service describes the American Music Fairness Act of 2025 as a proposal to expand the public-performance right for sound recordings to any audio transmission, and the House bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee with no later floor action listed. The Congressional Research Service describes the bill as a proposal to expand the public-performance right for sound recordings to include any audio transmission, per its December 2025 analysis.
H.R. 861 was introduced Jan. 31, 2025, by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA-48), with a Senate companion, S. 326, introduced the prior day by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); the House bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee, with no later floor action listed on the cited bill pages.
By the Numbers
SESAC's third-quarter lobbying disclosure through Colton Street Group reported $120,000, and a separate third-quarter report through Greenberg Traurig LLP reported $30,000, bringing the client's combined third-quarter total to $150,000.
Colton Street Group's third-quarter amount of $120,000 is unchanged from the second quarter of 2026 and from the third quarter of 2025. SESAC Rights Management Inc. reported $150,000 in lobbying expenses for the third quarter of 2026, up from $120,000 in the second quarter.
The Colton Street Group filing lists one lobbyist:
- John O'Neill, a government relations professional with prior government experience and Senate Finance Committee experience during the 108th and 109th Congresses.
Broader Context
The filing names no specific bills, listing only "Legislation related to music and copyright policy"; other music-related bills active in the 119th Congress include the following.
The Protect Working Musicians Act of 2026, introduced May 21 by Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC-2), would allow independent musicians to negotiate collectively with streaming platforms and artificial-intelligence developers without violating antitrust law. Its backers include the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Recording Academy, SAG-AFTRA, and the National Music Publishers' Association, among others. Rep. Ross stated that independent musicians have little bargaining power against global streaming platforms and little recourse when artificial-intelligence companies use their music without consent.
The NO FAKES Act of 2026 (S. 4591), which would establish an individual right over one's voice and likeness and create a takedown process for unauthorized digital replicas, drew support from SAG-AFTRA, the AFL-CIO, Google/YouTube, IBM, the Motion Picture Association, OpenAI, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Opponents, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, and the R Street Institute, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee not to advance the NO FAKES Act as drafted, warning that it could suppress lawful satire, parody, and commentary through over-removal. NetChoice separately argued the bill creates incentives to remove lawful content and fails to establish a uniform national standard because it preserves state and common-law claims.
The Bottom Line
H.R. 861 and S. 326 were referred to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, respectively, and the cited bill pages list no later floor action. The addition of Greenberg Traurig LLP as a second outside registrant this quarter marks the first expansion of SESAC's lobbying team in the available record.
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