Trent Lott: “I want to express the gratitude of the Senate to Jim Grahne, the director of our Senate Recording and Photographic…”

“I want to express the gratitude of the Senate to Jim Grahne, the director of our Senate Recording and Photographic Studios. Jim is retiring this week after 27 years of dedicated service to the Senate. Jim Grahne has been one of our most talented technical and management professionals in the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. He is an engineer by training and profession and has used his skill, creativity and expertise to shepherd the Senate through nearly 30 years of broadcast and photographic technology. I am referring to the television, radio and photographic services on which we as members, and as an institution, so readily rely. It was Jim's leadership that made technically possible the broadcast of the proceedings of the Senate floor. While that accomplishment may be one of his professional highlights, he always sought ways to improve products and services to members. Some of the recent successes of Jim and his staff include the installation of a fiber optic network for the broadcast of committee hearings, CD-Rom and on-line photo data base services for members' offices. Jim and his staff have also pioneered the use of closed captioning text, audio and visual technologies. This year the studios released full text and audio search and retrieval of floor proceedings. Offices may now search for and download any speech or debate text and audio with 15 minutes of its being given.”