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All:
Sorry for the delay in posting this, but to update you, a hearing was held last week on 3/10/10 for House Bill #439 in Frankfort, Ky. The bill came close to dying in the committee again, before a compromise was reached, and the bill was amended to require an official study and report to be done by the state Legislative Research Commission first, with the results to be published by November 1, 2010 (this year).
The bill, as amended, sailed through committee and the House, and will post today and be sent to the Senate for consideration. So it is absolutely essential that you still contact your state senators and ask them to support HB 439 as amended. If you have not already done so, reach out to them this week and ask for their support.
Obviously, this is not the result we wanted, but of the 3 scenarios possible, it was the second preferred. The bill could have passed without amendment (word was that would NOT happen), it could pass amended for further study, or die in committee. But before anyone starts claiming this was a loss, let me remind you of a few points why this was a victory.
1) It could have died. I don't think I can emphasize enough just how real of a possibility this was.
2) A study and formal report will bring the movie industry and advocates to the same table, and FACTUAL evidence will be considered in the compiliation of the results. Not innuendo, not claims that can not be supported, but FACTS. This will be the equivalent of a "white paper", and the first (objective one) of it's kind on this issue, as far as I can determine. I'm not aware of any others out there, but if anyone is, then let me know.
3) Other than the Minnesota law requiring more captions on TV for political ads and some other public TV, I am not aware of ANY other state having gotten this far with legislation requiring more access to captions in the theaters. There have been settlements due to lawsuits, setllements with state AG's offices (such as what happened in NJ), etc., but no where else has a state had a bill pass a single chamber of their state legislature, as far as I can tell. Most that have been introduced, have died in committee. So, until someone shows me otherwise, Kentucky has made HUGE strides toward this while building a base of support among the legislators. The longer this is in front of them, the more chance we have of garnering more support and being able to educate them better on this issue.
Make no mistake about it, there is still a ways to go. We still have to convince the Senate Judiciary committee to take up this bill and pass it, and then get enough votes in the full Senate to pass it (I believe we have those, but still working). But it is not necessarily a bad thing to bring the industry to the table with us and truly work towards a solution. I'm aware of what their PREFERRED presentation modalities are, and what ours are, but believe something can be worked out. I will continue to keep you all posted on this. A video of the hearing IS available, but it is not captioned at this point. I will attempt to get a copy of the transcript of the hearing and then see if I can caption the video or have someone else caption it. If that happens, I will be sure to post it here. If anyone reading this is hard of hearing and would like to watch it anyway, or have someone interpret for them, etc., let me know and I will send you the link.
Eddie
Sorry for the delay in posting this, but to update you, a hearing was held last week on 3/10/10 for House Bill #439 in Frankfort, Ky. The bill came close to dying in the committee again, before a compromise was reached, and the bill was amended to require an official study and report to be done by the state Legislative Research Commission first, with the results to be published by November 1, 2010 (this year).
The bill, as amended, sailed through committee and the House, and will post today and be sent to the Senate for consideration. So it is absolutely essential that you still contact your state senators and ask them to support HB 439 as amended. If you have not already done so, reach out to them this week and ask for their support.
Obviously, this is not the result we wanted, but of the 3 scenarios possible, it was the second preferred. The bill could have passed without amendment (word was that would NOT happen), it could pass amended for further study, or die in committee. But before anyone starts claiming this was a loss, let me remind you of a few points why this was a victory.
1) It could have died. I don't think I can emphasize enough just how real of a possibility this was.
2) A study and formal report will bring the movie industry and advocates to the same table, and FACTUAL evidence will be considered in the compiliation of the results. Not innuendo, not claims that can not be supported, but FACTS. This will be the equivalent of a "white paper", and the first (objective one) of it's kind on this issue, as far as I can determine. I'm not aware of any others out there, but if anyone is, then let me know.
3) Other than the Minnesota law requiring more captions on TV for political ads and some other public TV, I am not aware of ANY other state having gotten this far with legislation requiring more access to captions in the theaters. There have been settlements due to lawsuits, setllements with state AG's offices (such as what happened in NJ), etc., but no where else has a state had a bill pass a single chamber of their state legislature, as far as I can tell. Most that have been introduced, have died in committee. So, until someone shows me otherwise, Kentucky has made HUGE strides toward this while building a base of support among the legislators. The longer this is in front of them, the more chance we have of garnering more support and being able to educate them better on this issue.
Make no mistake about it, there is still a ways to go. We still have to convince the Senate Judiciary committee to take up this bill and pass it, and then get enough votes in the full Senate to pass it (I believe we have those, but still working). But it is not necessarily a bad thing to bring the industry to the table with us and truly work towards a solution. I'm aware of what their PREFERRED presentation modalities are, and what ours are, but believe something can be worked out. I will continue to keep you all posted on this. A video of the hearing IS available, but it is not captioned at this point. I will attempt to get a copy of the transcript of the hearing and then see if I can caption the video or have someone else caption it. If that happens, I will be sure to post it here. If anyone reading this is hard of hearing and would like to watch it anyway, or have someone interpret for them, etc., let me know and I will send you the link.
Eddie
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