Dear state leaders,

You heard it here first!  The victory detailed below is the result of many
years of hard work.  NCRA, the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and the
court reporting and captioning profession owe a huge debt of gratitude to
all the NCRA members who called, wrote, e-mailed, and visited their
representatives and senators.  You, as state leaders, helped to make this
initiative happen.  Congratulations to all of you on your hard work and
dedication.

On July 31, 2008, Congress, in an overwhelming and bipartisan fashion,
passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act.  Included in the act is
language that creates a grant program to train realtime writers to provide
both captioned information and communication access for the 30 million
Americans who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.  The passage of the bill marks
a triumphant end to eight years of effort put in by NCRA and our partners
in Congress.  Many legislators, such as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Ron
Kind (D-WI), have been advocates of this language since it was first
introduced.  NCRA has worked hand-in-hand with these lawmakers to ensure
that this vital language reaches the President’s desk.

The passage of this legislation is a major step in ensuring equal access to
information for those who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.  In addition, this
legislation enables the growth of the court reporting profession in order
to keep up with the increasing demand for trained court reporters.

Tune into the NCRA Web site, www.ncraonline.org, in the coming days to read
more press releases and see updates on the President’s actions.

Again, congratulations to everyone!

-Nate

Nathan R. Smith
Senior Government Relations Specialist
National Court Reporters Association
8224 Old Courthouse Road
Vienna, VA 22182
Telephone: (703) 556-6272 ext. 165
Fax: (703) 556-6291
Email: nsmith@ncrahq.org
www.NCRAonline.org