Congress quietly expands federal music tourism promotion—who benefits?
H.R. 617 — American Music Tourism Act of 2025 · Filed by Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) · 10 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 22, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends the Visit America Act to add music tourism to the federal government's domestic and international travel promotion mandate. It directs the Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism to identify music-related attractions and events (museums, venues, festivals, concerts) and actively promote travel to them, both domestically and internationally. The bill requires a report every two years on progress toward these music tourism goals.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to expand the federal government's travel and tourism promotion duties to explicitly include music-related attractions and events. It is a straightforward amendment to existing tourism promotion law, not a deregulation, subsidy, or liability shield.
What the text implies
- The bill may indirectly benefit hospitality, lodging, food service, and entertainment venues in music tourism destinations by increasing federal marketing support, though no direct subsidies or tax breaks are granted.
- Reporting requirements create a new federal tracking and accountability mechanism for music tourism metrics, which may influence future appropriations or policy decisions.
- The definition of 'music tourism' is broad enough to encompass venues of all sizes, potentially benefiting both large commercial venues and small independent music spaces.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands federal promotion of a specific tourism sector without restricting citizen rights, imposing new costs, or creating liability shields. It directs existing government resources toward identifying and marketing music tourism destinations, which may increase visitor traffic to music venues, festivals, and cultural sites—particularly in rural and heritage-rich areas. No new taxes, fees, or restrictions on citizens are imposed.
Who stands to gain
- hospitality and lodging operators in music tourism destinations
- music venues and festivals
- tourism boards and destination marketing organizations
- travel and transportation services
Named in the bill
Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism, Department of Commerce, Visit America Act, House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Consolidated Appropriations Act 2023
Where it stands
10 cosponsors: 7 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Jan 22, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 22, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
- Apr 8, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 8, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 52 - 1”
- Apr 28, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H1635-1636)”
- Apr 28, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Bilirakis moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
5 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,000,778 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 78% of bills with at least one filing.
Diana Harshbarger, the sponsor, reported $727,520 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- U.S. Travel Association — $800,000 on 1 filing
- Recording Academy — $120,778 on 1 filing
- National Independent Venue Association — $60,000 on 2 filings
- American Symphony Orchestra League - Dba League of American Orchestras — $10,000 on 1 filing
- Opera America — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,048 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress quietly expands federal music tourism promotion—who benefits?” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr617 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.