WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation today approved by voice vote the "Training for Realtime Writers Act" (S. 268), introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and co-sponsored by Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Bill Nelson (D-Florida).

The legislation: ·

 Authorizes a new grant program that would encourage the training of closed captioners. Under FCC rules, all English language television broadcasts must be captioned by 2006 and Spanish language broadcasts by 2010.

· Authorizes funding levels at $20 million per year for fiscal years 2006-2009. · Targets grant awards for use in supporting curriculum development, student recruitment, scholarships, training, distance learning, and job placement. Funding would not supplant current federal and non-federal funds obtained by the grantee.

The Committee accepted an amendment by Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) (see below) that placed the program under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department broadly as opposed to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) specifically (as outlined in the original bill), established a firm sunset date of 2009 for the program, determined a specific authorization level of $20 million for fiscal years 2006-2009, and set an administrative cost cap of 5%.