Finish Line Near for Internet Accessibility Legislation

The Senate may hotline a disabilities communications bill in a unanimous consent vote as soon as Tuesday, a Senate staffer told us. The House was expected to pass its own version Monday night, industry officials said. The House considered HR-3101 in the afternoon, but postponed votes until after our deadline. Monday was the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Monday on the House floor, Democrats and Republicans backed the bill by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Markey cited a bipartisan and “extensive” process to win consensus on the legislation. Politicians found rare, quick consensus on the disabilities legislation, agreed Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. He praised amendments agreed upon in markup last week (CED July 22 p2). Stearns fought for a bill that would set accessibility goals, but not dictate how to accomplish them, he said: “My colleagues, this bill does that."

The Markey legislation is “friendly to business” while helping people with disabilities, said House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. The bill was much improved through amendments, said a spokeswoman for CEA, which had raised red flags over the disabilities legislation. “We still have problems with the potential ban on 13-inch sets” that lack closed captioning and video description, “but we are hopeful and still working on that.” USTelecom, CTIA and NCTA also have supported the legislation.

The Senate hasn’t officially scheduled a vote on the Senate version of the bill (S-3304) by Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Kerry said Monday that his bill “would make it easier for deaf and hard of hearing Americans to access the same technologies that hearing people take for granted.”