Chuck Grassley: “I am pleased to once again be the lead Republican cosponsor of the ``Training for Realtime Writers Act''. This…”

“I am pleased to once again be the lead Republican cosponsor of the ``Training for Realtime Writers Act''. This legislation that Senator Harkin and I are introducing today will provide grants for the training of realtime reporters and captioners. While we ran out of time to address this matter in the 107th Congress, I would remind Senators of the looming problem related to a shortage of what are called ``realtime writers''. Realtime writers are essentially trained court reporters, much like the Official Reporters of Debates here in the Senate, who use a combination of additional specialized training and technology to transform words into text as they are spoken. This can allow deaf and hard of hearing individuals to understand live television as well as follow proceedings at a civic function or in a classroom. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress mandated that most television programming be fully captioned by 2006 in order to allow the 28 million Americans who are deaf or had of hearing to have access to the same news and information that many of us take for granted. Information provides a vital link to the outside world.”