TEXAS REP. MICHAEL McCAUL
MANY IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS lean liberal, but when it comes to congressional music legislation, much of the progress comes from bipartisanship, with Republicans from former Sen. Orrin Hatch to Rep. Michael McCaul sponsoring crucial creators’ rights bills. “A lot of our strongest advocates are on the Republican side,” says Jimmy Jam. “It’s the one place we agree upon things.”
McCaul — a guitarist who plays every day, attends Austin City Limits in his hometown and saw U2 on its first U.S. tour in 1981 — tops this Republican list, and will join Jam, Terry Lewis and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, as Grammys on the Hill honorees this year. McCaul co-sponsored 2018’s Music Modernization Act and the Save Our Stages bill, which brought $15 billion in funding to pandemic-challenged concert venues, and he’s working with Democratic House colleagues to pass the HITS Act, which would allow musicians and producers to deduct recording expenses on their taxes. (“It’s a matter of gathering focus in the midst of many competing priorities,” he says of the pending bill from July 2020.)
McCaul regularly attends Grammys on the Hill, which he calls “an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and highlight my musicrelated legislation.” Working with Deutch, McCaul in January introduced the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act to boost musicrelated exchange programs in an attempt to “advance peace abroad.” The bill, he says, “takes my belief in the power of music and appreciation for its creators to a global scale.”
Will music bills repair the ugly partisan wounds of the past decade by uniting Democrats and Republicans? Not a chance. But, as McCaul says by email: “I’ve always believed that music is a vital part of American society and a powerful tool to promote peace worldwide. And I think many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognize this as well.” His favorite Austin artists are singer-songwriters Kacey Musgraves and Patty Griffin, the former a staunch liberal, the latter an outspoken voting-rights advocate, so maybe there’s hope.