Monday, November 23, 2009

Caption Action 2's Latest Visit to Capitol Hill

Today Jamie made her last visit to Capitol Hill - for the House side. (Senate side is next once we have a Senate version of HR 3101). Things were quiet because Congress is not in session until December. The staff was hard (?) at work though - Jamie noticed at least a few "while the cat's away, the mice will play" parties.

Jamie visited the offices of 88 Congressmen and Congresswomen, plus had a meeting with her own representative's legislative director. The meeting with the legislative director went very well! Jamie left with the hopeful impression that her own representative would support HR 3101 soon. The LD had several questions about HR 3101, not all of which Jamie was able to answer. For the ones she was not able to answer, she referred him to the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology.

In another office, the staff person asked, "Why HR 3101? What about Google and YouTube captions?" That led to Jamie sitting next to the staff person to explain that we still need HR 3101 because as great as it is that Google is introducing automatic captioning, those captions are not the same quality as the captions we are used to on television and DVD. Google's captions are imperfect machine generated captions; the ones we are used to on television and DVD have been carefully produced and edited, with the exception of live captioning. But even the live captioning is done by professional real-time captioners.

This being Capitol Hill, Jamie did have one surprise. In the office of Representative Debbie Halvorson (Illinois), the young staffer sitting at the desk began to use sign language with her. It was fairly fluent sign language, and Jamie exclaimed, "You know sign language!" He called someone over, and another young staffer came over to talk to Jamie, signing even more fluently. He had deaf parents! Jamie had bumped into an adult child of deaf parents, a CODA! He did not know about HR 3101, and asked Jamie to send him a PDF of the SIGNews November article on HR 3101. You just never know where you will discover a "deaf connection!"

In fact, this time, it was the SIGNews article that impressed the Hill staff. When Jamie displayed her copy of SIGNews to Hill staff, more often than not the reaction was "Wow!" The big headline made them realize just how significant HR 3101 is.

Below is a list of Representatives' offices that Jamie visited today, by state. If your representative is on this list, please follow up with a call or email:

Young, Don Alaska
Faleomavaega, Eni American Samoa
Flake, Jeff Arizona
Snyder, Vic Arkansas
Berman, Howard California
Chu, Judy California
Dreier, David California
Harman, Jane California
Herger, Wally California
Lewis, Jerry California
Matsui, Doris California
Miller, George California
Nunes, Devin California
Pelosi, Nancy California
Radanovich, George California
Thompson, Mike California
Waxman, Henry California
DeLauro, Rosa Connecticut
Kosmas, Suzanne Florida
Meek, Kendrick Florida
Posey, Bill Florida
Young, CW Bill Florida
Bishop, Sanford Georgia
Deal, Nathan Georgia
Linder, John Georgia
Price, Tom Georgia
Biggert, Judy Illinois
Costello, Jerry Illinois
Davis, Danny Illinois
Halvorson, Debbie Illinois
Jackson Jr., Jesse Illinois
Kirk, Mark Illinois
Manzullo, Donald Illinois
Rush, Bobby Illinois
Braley, Bruce Iowa
Latham, Tom Iowa
Jenkins, Lynn Kansas
Rogers, Harold Kentucky
Whitfield, Ed Kentucky
Cao, Joseph Louisiana
Fleming, John Louisiana
Bartlett, Roscoe Maryland
Neal, Richard Massachusetts
Oberstar, James Minnesota
Paulson, Erik Minnesota
Peterson, Collin (became a cosponsor!) Minnesota
Clay, William Missouri
Cleaver, Emmanuel (became a cosponsor!) Missouri
Skelton, Ike Missouri
Heller, Dean Nevada
Pallone Jr., Frank New Jersey
Sires, Albio New Jersey
Teague, Harry New Mexico
Arcuri, Michael New York
Clarke, Yvette New York
Crowley, Joseph New York
Engel, Eliot New York
Tonko, Paul New York
Price, David North Carolina
Sablan, Gregorio Northern Mariana Islands
Boehner, John Ohio
Cole, Tom Oklahoma
Defazio, Peter Oregon
Dent, Charles Pennsylvania
Holden, Tim Pennsylvania
Murtha, John Pennsylvania
Sestak, Joe Pennsylvania
Shuster, Bill Pennsylvania
Thompson, Glen Pennsylvania
Clyburn, James South Carolina
Cohen Steve Tennessee
Duncan, John Tennessee
Hall, Ralph Texas
Hensarling, Jeb Texas
Jackson Lee, Sheila Texas
Johnson, Eddie Bernice Texas
Marchant, Kenny Texas
McCaul, Michael Texas
Ortiz, Solomon Texas
Smith, Lamar Texas
Thornberry, Mac Texas
Chaffetz, Jason Utah
Matheson, Jim Utah (return visit)
Wolf, Frank Virginia
McDermott, Jim Washington
Smith, Adam Washington
Obey, David Wisconsin
Lummis, Cynthia Wyoming

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1 comment:

  1. Jamie:

    Nice to see you visited my Congressman's (Harold Rogers of Kentucky) office! As you know (from my blog), I've already been in contact. I'm hoping it works out, and I believe strongly if it makes it out of committee, he will support it.

    Keep up the great work!

    Eddie (Thumpaflash)

    ReplyDelete