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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Two More Representatives Cosponsoring HR 3101!

Today Caption Action 2 was on Capitol Hill and had a meeting with Mark Bayer in Rep. Ed Markey's office. Bayer had some good news for Caption Action 2: Yesterday Representatives Maurice Hinchey (NY) and Paul Kanjorski (PA) became cosponsors of HR 3101! Now we have a total of 10 cosponsors. Still small, but starting to grow!

Representative Hinchey was a cosponsor last year. He has now rejoined us!

Bayer also told Caption Action 2 that while work continues to get support in the House, work is also being done on two other fronts: the Senate, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He said that sometime this month a bill may be introduced in the Senate that mirrors HR 3101 in the House! Regarding the FCC, Bayer explained that the more aware the FCC is of the issues addressed by HR 3101, the better the chances of HR 3101 moving through Congress. On October 20, the FCC will have another workshop on broadband access for people with disabilities, "Broadband Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Barriers, Opportunities, and Policy Recommendations." (Details are in this PDF). Page 2 of the PDF has this question: "How often do people with hearing disabilities find that material that they would like to access on the web is uncaptioned?"

Just before Jamie left Bayer, he received a special notice from the Sergeant at Arms (don't know what that means on Capitol Hill). This notice was about the Dedication of the Statue of Helen Keller! A statue of Helen Keller, given by the people of Alabama, will be placed in the U.S. Capitol! Jamie did not know about this event. Bayer said that this is an event that will attract many members of Congress and is therefore a good opportunity to increase awareness of deaf issues. The statue dedication ceremony will take place on October 7 at 11:00 am in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol!

Today Caption Action 2 visited most if not all, of the Representatives with offices in the Longworth building. Then a mistake was made; a walk to the Ford House Office building. Turned out there are no representatives in that building! It is only for house support offices. Ugh. Back to the Rayburn building to visit a few offices that had been missed before. On the way down in the elevator heading to the Cannon building, who did Jamie run into? None other than the same woman from Representative Conyers' office! She was pleased to see Jamie again and told her she would try to get Conyers to cosponsor.

Before heading home, Jamie made one last stop; her own Representative's office, for the second time. The people in Gerry Connolly's office did remember Jamie, and gladly took an updated Caption Action 2 flyer. Connolly still has not signed on as a cosponsor for the bill, but Jamie is hopeful that between her phone calls, emails, and in-person visits to Connolly's office, that he will sign on.

All in all, a pretty productive day on the Hill. Jamie collected a ton of business cards, and will be updating the Excel spreadsheet of Congress Staff Contacts (download it from the blogroll). Staff contacts are important because it is the staff that reviews the bill, and can influence the Representative. So download the spreadsheet and see if there is a direct email contact for your own Representative's office! It is going to take a few days for Jamie to enter all the new staff contacts she collected today, so keep checking this Excel spreadsheet for updates.

Caption Action 2 Returns to Capitol Hill!

Today after a dental appointment followed by a flu shot, Jamie went back to Capitol Hill. This time, she visited over 100 offices, giving them Caption Action 2 flyers. Many of the staff were impressed by Caption Action 2's Facebook page. "Wow" was a frequent utterance Jamie heard.

Lightning also struck twice. When Jamie stopped by Representative Andre Carson's (Indiana) office, there was a group of well-dressed gentlemen just inside the entrance, talking. The group encouraged Jamie to come in to talk when they saw her outside the office about to go inside. So Jamie gave her little speech, feeling awkward to be "presenting" to a group instead of just the one staff person she usually talked to. Jamie noticed that one person in the group was smiling and seemed particularly interested. Afterwards, he took the Caption Action 2 flyer from Jamie and told her who he was...Representative Andre Carson!

Meeting Representative Conyers

Remember the now-classic blog post "What.A.Day.Caption Action 2 on Capitol Hill?" That day Jamie had unexpectedly met Representative John Conyers, Jr. (MI). Yesterday the picture was ready for pickup, and here it is!

Jamie Berke, About.com Guide and Leader, Caption Action 2
with Representative John Conyers, Jr. (MI).

Two More Cosponsors and Dear Colleague...!

Today Caption Action 2 learned that we now have two more cosponsors, for a total of six! Joining Representatives Barbara Lee (CA), Fortney Pete Stark (CA), Steve Israel (NY), and Linda Sanchez (CA) as cosponsors are Representatives Tim Ryan (OH), and Chris Van Hollen (MD)! Many deaf and hard of hearing people live in Maryland so this is very significant that we now have a Representative from Maryland! Last year, the previous version of the bill did not have a single co-sponsor from Maryland.

Plus, today Representative Ed Markey's office sent out its "Dear Colleague" letter to all Representatives, reproduced below!

Ensure Equal Access to the
New Technologies and Innovations of the 21^st Century

Co-Sponsor H.R. 3101, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act

August 12, 2009

Dear Colleague:

Over the last decade, we have seen a revolution in the way Americans interact, learn and conduct business. However, the wizardry of the wires and the sophistication of software programs do little for those who cannot affordably access or effectively use them. I recently introduced H.R. 3101, the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, to ensure that all Americans are offered equal access to these exciting and innovative new technologies.

H.R. 3101 would amend the Communications Act to ensure that new Internet-enabled telephone and video services and equipment are accessible to, and usable by, people with disabilities. The bill also closes existing gaps in telecommunications laws. From extending hearing aid compatibility and Internet closed captioning to real-time text support for emergency services, H.R. 3101 seeks to provide a smooth migration to the next-generation of Internet-based and digital communication technologies.

The guiding principle of the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act is to bring existing federal laws requiring communications and video programming accessibility up to date, to fill in any accessibility gaps, and to ensure the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of daily living through accessible, affordable and usable communication and video programming technologies.H.R. 3101 would:

• Extend federal law that currently requires hearing aid compatibility (HAC) on newly manufactured and imported telephones to comparable IP-compatible equipment (CPE) used to provide Internet-enabled voice communication service.The purpose of this provision is to ensure that people with hearing loss have access to telephone devices with a built-in speaker (typically held to the ear) used with advanced technologies.


• Clarify that telecommunications relay services (TRS) are intended to ensure that people who have hearing or speech disabilities can use relay services to engage in functionally equivalent telephone communication with all other people, not just people without a hearing or speech disability


• Require advanced communications service providers and manufacturers to make their services and equipment accessible to and usable by people with disabilities unless doing so would result in an undue burden


• Add new measures to improve the accountability and enforcement of these new disability safeguards, including reporting obligations for industry and the FCC, directives for new FCC complaint procedures, and clarification of FCC penalties for non-compliance


• Direct the FCC to conduct inquiries on a variety of topics, including ways to transmit closed captioning and video description on video programming exhibited on new technologies, including Internet protocol and digital wireless services and equipment; ways to make televised emergency information accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired; and ways to make user interfaces and related on-screen menus or visual indicators on video programming apparatus used for the navigation or selection of video programming accessible.


• Expand existing closed captioning requirements to video programming apparatus of all sizes and require that such apparatus also deliver video description.


• Direct the FCC to establish a schedule of deadlines for video described programs. Those rules, originally promulgated in 2001, were struck down by a U.S. Court of Appeals for lack of FCC authority.


• Require the FCC to issue regulations for video programming providers and owners and multichannel video programming distributors to make their video programming information and selection accessible to people who are unable to read the visual display, so that these individuals can make program selections in real-time.

This bill would not be an economic burden on the industry and consumers, just as similar assertions raised against hearing aid compatibility or against the closed captioning bill I sponsored and successfully battled to make law in 1990 proved to be erroneous. In that debate, we were told that mandating closed captioning was overly burdensome and would cost a fortune. Today, that law is indispensable, and the update this new bill would provide will be equally indispensable.

Current co-sponsors of H.R. 3101 are: Barbara Lee, Linda Sanchez, Stark, Israel, Tim Ryan, Van Hollen

If you have questions or would like to co-sponsor, please have a member of your staff contact Mark Bayer on my staff at 5-2836 or mark.bayer@mail.house.gov.

Sincerely,

Edward Markey

What. A. Day. Caption Action 2 on Capitol Hill

Caption Action 2 (Jamie) had quite a day on Capitol Hill!

Learning More About HR 3101

Speakers and panel members educated a large crowd about HR 3101 the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009. There is much more to the bill than just captioning, but Caption Action 2's focus is on the captioning aspect of the bill. However, we will be blogging about the other aspects too, because they are also of major importance to the deaf and hard of hearing, deaf-blind, and blind/visually impaired communities. Although he was tied up with health care legislation, Representative Markey came and received an award (another award went to Senator McCain for his longtime support for disability rights and access).

One speaker was David Bahar, a deaf legislative assistant in Congressman Jay Inslee's office. Unfortunately, Inslee has not yet become a co-sponsor for HR 3101. Bahar said that Inslee's office was still "studying" the bill. Hopefully Inslee will become a co-sponsor, but no guarantee.

Teams Visit Representative Offices

Eight teams then went to visit Representatives' offices. Each team had appointments to visit just three offices, so that was only 24 Representatives. A tiny sliver of all the Representatives on Capitol Hill! There are over 400 Representatives in the House.

Fred Weiner (TDI board member) led the team that Jamie was on. Fred did a good job of presenting about the bill to the staff members that the team met with. Another team member told how his young hearing children like to watch video online but he can not understand the videos. Fred and Jamie talked about their deaf children, and Jamie talked about Caption Action 2. One staff member was especially helpful; he was a subject matter expert on telecommunications, and he warned the team that the wireless industry was not that supportive of the bill (more in another blog post once Jamie clarifies the issues that the wireless industry has with the bill).

When the staff member told the team that the wireless industry wants to be "included" on the discussion, a team member responded by complaining that it goes two ways: if the wireless industry wants to be included, they have to include us in new technology development!! Jamie chimed in, "Bottom line...we are tired of playing catch up!"

Continuing to Lobby

Jamie stayed afterwards to do some more lobbying on her own. She visited at least 90 Representatives' offices before she had to call it quits by 5 p.m. due to aching feet. Jamie developed a new respect for what lobbyists do!

At each Representative's office, Jamie gave an "elevator pitch," a short, three-minute pitch about the bill. Jamie's pitch: Hello, I am here about HR 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009. This bill takes the laws for captioning on television and applies them to the world wide web. On Facebook, I run this group that supports the bill and (Jamie hands over printout of Caption Action 2 on Facebook) that is growing by 1,000 people every three days." Several staff members exclaimed "Wow!" when they heard how quickly the group is growing.

Meeting Representative Conyers

One of the Representatives' offices that Jamie visited was John Conyers, Jr. (MI). A staff member there was very enthusiastic about the bill because a relative is hard of hearing. That staff member actually arranged for Jamie to meet Conyers in person! Conyers even read the bill while Jamie waited. Then a photographer took their picture together. Here's hoping Conyers becomes a co-sponsor of the bill.

Odds Against HR3101? Tremendous!!!

How great are the odds against our bill, HR3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, making it through Congress? As Caption Action 2 discovered to its dismay, tremendous!!! For starters, according to the Govtrack.us Federal Legislation page:

Members of Congress introduce some ten thousand bills and resolutions in each two-year session of Congress, only a small fraction of which are seriously considered and fewer still enacted as law.

Not only that, according to the page on Govtrack.us that explains Committee Assignments:

Most bills begin by being considered by one or several congressional committees which may "report" the bill favorably or unfavorably to the Senate or House as a whole allowing it to receive consideration by the full body and move forward, or may fail to consider a bill at all preventing the bill from moving forward. Most bills never receive any committee consideration and are never reported out. House bills start in House committees and enter Senate committees only after being passed by the House...

But that's not all. Our bill is in the hands of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. How much competition does our bill have so far, given that this two-year session of Congress will likely see more bills introduced? According to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce page on Govtrack.us, around a thousand bills are competing with ours for attention!

This does not mean we can't do it. We can!! It is going to take a huge, collaborative effort in the deaf and hard of hearing community to get the attention of Congress. The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) and its affiliates is working hard to get support. Caption Action 2 is working hard to rally even more troops. We need a huge army of supporters if this bill is going to have a serious chance!

Come to Capitol Hill July 30!

As part of their conference this year, TDI is sponsoring a Legislative event on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2009. This is an important opportunity for supporters of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 to be "heard!" Even if you do not go to the TDI conference, come to Capitol Hill! Reprinted below from the TDI Conference Schedule is the Legislative Day morning events on Capitol Hill:

Special Program at Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill

• 9:00 a.m. Plenary Session
  • Emcee: Fred Weiner
• 9:15 a.m Presentation of two Karen Peltz Strauss Public Policy Awards
• 10:30 a.m.
  
  • "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009"
  • Consumer Advocates Panel -
    • Moderator: Rosaline Crawford
    • Panelists: John Stanton, Lise Hamlin, Alfred Sonnenstrahl, and Randy Pope
• 11:15 a.m.
  • "21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009"
  • Congressional Staff Panel -
    • Moderator: Karen Peltz Strauss
• 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. - Advocates visit House and Senate offices