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[Senate Report 109-93]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

109th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session                                                     109-93
_______________________________________________________________________

                                     

                                                       Calendar No. 142

               TRAINING FOR REALTIME WRITERS ACT OF 2005

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 OF THE

           COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION

                                   on

                                 S. 268

DATE deg.June 27, 2005.--Ordered to be printed
       SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
                       one hundred ninth congress
                             first session

                     TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman
                 DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Co-Chairman
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona                 JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West 
CONRAD BURNS, Montana                    Virginia
TRENT LOTT, Mississippi              JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas          BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine              BARBARA BOXER, California
GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon              BILL NELSON, Florida
JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada                  MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia               FRANK LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire        E. BENJAMIN NELSON, Nebraska
JIM DeMINT, South Carolina           MARK PRYOR, Arkansas
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
                    Lisa Sutherland, Staff Director
             Christine Drager Kurth, Deputy Staff Director
                      David Russell, Chief Counsel
     Margaret Cummisky, Democratic Staff Director and Chief Counsel
 Samuel Whitehorn, Democratic Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel

                                                       Calendar No. 142
109th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session                                                     109-93

======================================================================

 
               TRAINING FOR REALTIME WRITERS ACT OF 2005

                                _______
                                

                 June 27, 2005.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

       Mr. Stevens, from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                Transportation, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 268]

    The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, to 
which was referred the bill (S. 268) to provide competitive 
grants for training court reporters and closed captioners to 
meet requirements for realtime writers under the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996, and for other purposes, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments 
and recommends that the bill (as amended) do pass.

                          PURPOSE OF THE BILL

  The primary objective of this legislation is to allow funding 
to be made available for the purpose of training real-time 
writers qualified to provide captioning services.

                          BACKGROUND AND NEEDS

  There are over 28 million deaf or hard-of-hearing Americans 
who rely on closed captioning to get news and other vital 
information. Closed captioning also opens the world to the deaf 
and hard-of-hearing by allowing them to interact and 
participate in civic and personal events. Further, an 
additional 72 million Americans benefit from closed captioning 
including remedial readers, young children learning to read, 
and individuals learning English as a second language.
  When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 it 
required that all video programming distributors provide 
captioning for 100 percent of non-exempt English language 
programming by 2006 and Spanish language programming by 2010. 
Currently, there are approximately 300 English language 
captioners and six Spanish language captioners in the United 
States who are able to consistently caption at the speed and 
accuracy levels necessary for real-time closed captioning of 
television programming. In order to ensure that this 
requirement is met for the over 1700 broadcast stations and 
hundreds of cable and satellite channels, the National Court 
Reporters Association estimates that thousands of additional 
captioners will be needed. This legislation would assist in 
fulfilling this Congressional requirement.

                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

  On February 2, 2005, Senator Harkin introduced S. 268, ``The 
Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2005''. The bill has 23 
cosponsors. In addition, H.R. 27, ``The Job Training 
Improvement Act of 2005'', which would authorize similar 
funding levels for realtime writers, was approved by the House 
of Representatives on March 2, 2005.
  On March 10, 2005, the Committee held an Executive Session at 
which S. 268 was considered. The bill was approved unanimously 
by voice vote and was ordered reported with an amendment by 
Senator Sununu. The amendment would limit administrative costs 
for the program to 5 percent of appropriated grant funds; shift 
management of the program from the National Telecommunications 
and Information Administration (NTIA) to the Secretary of 
Commerce; require an annual review of the program be conducted 
by the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce, sunset 
the program in 2009; and specify $20 million as the 
authorization level for fiscal year 2009.

                            ESTIMATED COSTS

  In accordance with paragraph 11(a) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate and section 403 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee provides the 
following cost estimate, prepared by the Congressional Budget 
Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                    Washington, DC, March 15, 2005.
Hon. Ted Stevens,
Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 268, the Training 
for Realtime Writers Act of 2005.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Melissa E. 
Zimmerman.
            Sincerely,
                                     Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director.
    Enclosure.

S. 268--Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2005

    Summary: CBO estimates that implementing S. 268 would cost 
$67 million over the next five years, assuming the 
appropriation of the authorized amounts. The funds would be 
used by the Department of Commerce to provide grants to 
entities that train court reporters, including court reporters 
who have completed training programs for realtime writers. The 
grants would be used to promote training and job placement for 
such individuals.
    Enacting this bill would not affect direct spending or 
revenues. S. 268 contains no intergovernmental or private-
sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 
(UMRA); any costs to state, local, or tribal governments would 
result from complying with conditions of federal assistance.
    Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated 
budgetary impact of S. 268 is shown in the following table. For 
this estimate, CBO assumes that $20 million authorized to be 
appropriated for each of 2006 through 2009 will be appropriated 
for each fiscal year and that outlays will follow historical 
trends for similar programs. The costs of this legislation fall 
within budget function 370 (commerce and housing credit).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
                                                                   2005    2006    2007    2008    2009    2010
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  CHANGES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION

Authorization Level.............................................       0      20      20      20      20       0
Estimated Outlays...............................................       0       2      11      16      20      18
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: S. 268 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in UMRA; any costs to state, local, or tribal 
governments would result from complying with conditions of 
federal assistance.
    Estimate prepared by: Federal Costs: Melissa E. Zimmerman; 
Impact on State, Local, and Tribal Governments: Sarah Puro; 
Impact on the Private Sector: Craig Cammarato.
    Estimate approved by: Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                      REGULATORY IMPACT STATEMENT

  In accordance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee provides the 
following evaluation of the regulatory impact of the 
legislation, as reported:

Number of persons covered

  The legislation provides an authorization of appropriations 
for the fiscal years 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 to enable the 
Secretary of Commerce to provide grants to fund educational 
programs to train real-time writers. This bill will affect the 
estimated 72,000,000 individuals who use close captioning 
services, including more than 28,000,000 who are deaf or hard 
of hearing.

Economic impact

  Section 7 of this bill authorizes appropriations of $20 
million dollars for fiscal years 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Privacy

  This legislation will not have any adverse impact on the 
personal privacy of the individuals affected.

Paperwork

  S. 268 would require each eligible entity receiving grants to 
submit to the Secretary of Commerce a report describing the use 
of grant amounts and the effectiveness of activities aimed at 
increasing the number of real-time writers. The bill would also 
require a final report by each entity receiving grants on best 
practices for increasing the number of individuals who are 
trained, employed, and retained in employment as real-time 
writers.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Short title

  Section 1 would provide that the bill may be cited as 
``Training for Realtime Writers Act of 2005''.

Section 2. Findings

  Section 2 would set forth Congressional findings on the need 
for closed captioning services. The findings detail the history 
of the Federal Communications Commission's adopted rules 
requiring closed-captioning and its accompanying studies which 
demonstrate the benefits received from closed captioning 
services.

Section 3. Authorization of grant program to promote training and job 
        placement of realtime writers

  Section 3 would authorize the Secretary of Commerce to 
provide grants to accredited educational institutions. Grants 
would be for a period of two years and would not exceed $1.5 
million.

Section 4. Application

  Section 4 would provide information on the application 
process to receive a grant from the Secretary of Commerce.

Section 5. Use of funds

  Section 5 would set forth the requirements for the use of 
funds for entities receiving grants. Grants would be used for 
recruitment, training and assistance, and job placement for 
individuals who have completed a court reporting training 
program. Section 5 would impose a 5 percent cap on the amount 
of grant funds that the Secretary of Commerce could spend on 
administrative costs.

Section 6. Reports

  Section 6 would require each entity receiving a grant to 
provide a report to the Secretary of Commerce, at the end of 
each year of the grant period and would require an annual 
review be conducted by the Inspector General of the Department 
of Commerce.

Section 7. Authorization of appropriations

  Section 7 would authorize $20,000,000 dollars for each of 
fiscal years 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

Section 8. Sunset

  Section 8 would repeal the Act on October 1, 2009.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

  In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing 
Rules of the Senate, the Committee states that the bill as 
reported would make no change to existing law.

                                  
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