From The Tennessean, May 28, 2009, "Performers Will See Little Benefit From Royalty Legislation," by Bayard Walters:

"Writers' royalties now paid through ASCAP/BMI/SESAC will inevitably decline."

THE FACTS: Section 5 of the House legislation - H.R. 848 - is entitled, "NO HARMFUL EFFECTS ON SONGWRITERS."

The Performance Rights Act includes protections for songwriters and performance rights organizations (PROs). Section 5 (c), "Preservation of Royalties on Underlying Works," clearly states that, -...under no circumstances shall the rates... for the public performance of sound recordings... reduce or adversely affect the license fees payable to copyright owners of musical works [that's songwriters] or their representatives for the public performance of their works by terrestrial broadcast stations [that's PROs], and such license fees for the public performance of musical works shall be independent of license fees paid for the public performance of sound recordings."

You can look it up: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.848: