Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that would implement the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled (``Marrakesh Treaty''). I'm pleased that Senators Feinstein, Corker, Menendez, Hatch, Harris and Leahy are joining me as original cosponsors.

The Marrakesh Treaty was signed by the United States in October 2013. It seeks to help address the global ``book famine'' and facilitate access to printed works for visually impaired individuals by providing, with appropriate safeguards, that copyright protection should not impede the creation and distribution of accessible format copies, including the exchange of such copies internationally.

The Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act represents a consensus approach developed by the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees with stakeholders within the publishers, libraries and print disabilities communities, in consultation with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office as well as other interested industry and public interest stakeholders. I particularly want to commend the National Federation of the Blind, the Association of American Publishers and the Library Copyright Alliance for working with us in reaching an agreement on legislative text and proposed legislative history. We would not be here today without their efforts.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee, Chairman Corker and Ranking Member Menendez, on ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty in the Senate, and with Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Feinstein on passing the Marrakesh Treaty Implementation Act.

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