H.R. 3101 as passed last July 26, 2010 by the House is available at www.thomas.gov. (Or, visit at the link: www.govtrack.us)
The bill underwent changes during the process of passage through the House Subcommittee and the full Committee. Some of the changes to H.R. 3101 mirror provisions in the Senate bill that was introduced, later amended, and passed by the Senate Committee (S. 3304). Some of the later amendments to S. 3304 mirror provisions that were maintained by H.R. 3101.
As with any legislative effort, we did not get everything we asked for, but we got a lot. We reported through action alerts on the COAT listserv about key provisions that were at risk or needed to be restored. We got restored in H.R. 3101 the provision for equipment for people who are deaf-blind and for accessible user interfaces on devices with Internet services. We did not get all the captioning or video description that we wanted, but we got some. We are reviewing the final House legislation that was passed yesterday (by a vote of 348 to 23) carefully to summarize the bill in light of the changes made in the last couple of weeks as well as the differences that remain between H.R. 3101 and S. 3304.
In the end, H.R. 3101 remains the stronger of the two bills We will need every ounce of advocacy effort we have to get the Senate to act favorably to get a bill passed this Congress and signed by President Obama. If this does not happen, we will need to start this process all over again in the next Congress.
As for your specific questions:
- The USF provisions (Lifeline/Link-Up and the set aside for equipment for people who are deaf-blind) met with unexpected but significant opposition in both the House and Senate. We are confident that the FCC will pursue and has the authority to provide all low-income eligible people (with and without disabilities) the choice to use their USF Lifeline/Link-Up subsidies for broadband services. Such is not the case for equipment for people who are deaf-blind. As such, our advocacy efforts were directed to and successfully achieved restoration of that equipment provision, in both S. 3304 and H.R. 3101, by identifying an alternate source of stable funding, the Interstate TRS Fund.
- H.R. 3101 mandates that programs shown in the future with captions > on television will be captioned when distributed on the Internet. Our advocacy efforts to require captions on new television-like programs distributed exclusively on the Internet were not successful. Neither the Senate nor the House is willing at this time to regulate Internet-exclusive television-like programs. Naturally, we are disappointed with this development. We believe that Internet-only videos must be captioned by broadcasters, because it is increasingly happening for short clips and we believe Internet-exclusive television-like programs will be common in the future. Nonetheless, H.R. 3101 is still stronger than S. 3304 with respect to Internet captioning because it recognizes this nascent market’s potential to leave our community behind. H.R. 3101 requires each broadcast and cable television network to report regularly to the FCC the amount of captioned Internet-exclusive television-like programs. H.R. 3101 also requires the FCC to report to Congress periodically about captioning Internet-exclusive television-like programs and to make recommendations about whether Congress should adopt or the FCC should implement a captioning requirement.
At this time, the Senate is poised to pass S. 3304. We want the Senate to substitute and pass H.R. 3101. We also recognize the potential for Senate inaction if the community (in addition to industry) opposes S. 3304 and H.R. 3101. At the same time, we also recognize the significant advantage provided by the 20th anniversary of the ADA to achieve some measure of increased accessibility this year; and no lost opportunity to continue advocating in the next Congress for even more accessibility.
The Senate could take up this matter before the August recess or when they return in September. This window of opportunity is small, and we must make the most of the momentum we have today.
Stay tuned to the COAT listserv for more info which we will provide ASAP.
Sent to share this message from
Rosaline Crawford, Director of the NAD Law and Advocacy Center
COAT is named for Coalition Organizations for Accessible Technology, a coalition of over 300 national, regional, state, and community-based disability organizations. We advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet Protocol (IP) technologies.
