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    January 2021 Washington Letter

     

    Federal Government

    The 116th Congress: A Wrap Up of ABA Legislative and Policy Successes

    The 1st Session of the 116th Congress started in 2019 with a politically divided government and the longest federal government shutdown in history. It ended with the impeachment of the president by the Democratic-led House of Representatives. The 2nd Session started in 2020 with the Republican-led Senate acquittal of the president, followed quickly by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

    This Month's Articles

    Advocate of the Month

    We are proud to highlight June Besek as the ABA Advocate of the Month for January 2021. June is the Executive Director and a lecturer of the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts at Columbia Law School. June teaches a seminar on authors, artists, and performers, as well as, co-teaches, a seminar on current issues in copyright. June has worked tirelessly to help enact the Copyright Alternatives in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE Act), a key ABA-IPL Section legislative priority that allows small creators, such as photographers and musicians, to have access to a legal remedy in the case that their work was misappropriated. She believes that copyright, and other forms of IP rights, help secure the creativity and labor behind their expression. She has been a passionate advocate to help empower the creative and innovative community with their legal rights.

    About the Washington Letter

    The ABA Washington Letter is a monthly publication produced by the Governmental Affairs Office to report and analyze congressional and executive branch action on legislative issues of interest to the ABA and the legal profession. The newsletter highlights ABA involvement in the federal legislative process and focuses on the association's legislative and governmental priorities and other issues on which the ABA has policy.

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