Local man helping the people hear health care bill

HIGHLANDS RANCH - The words seem to meander out of Randy Arent's deep voice.

"The following provisions of this title shall apply to a grant made under this section to the same extent and in the same manner as such provisions apply to allotments made under section 502," he crooned into the microphone that's located in his basement studio.

He was reading page 592 of the Senate's 2074-page long health reform bill. It sounded good. He's got a great voice. But it's not exactly the world's most exciting copy.

Yet, he's doing this with a big smile on his face. The former social studies teacher is one of 120 voice-over actors who have found themselves caught up in a Web site called hearthebill.org.

On the site you can listen to each and every word of the two major House health care reform bills. Soon you will be able to listen to each and every word of the Senate's lengthy bill.

Sound strange? Sound a tad monotonous? Well, the creators of the Web site are proud to say that since its inception in September, the site had seen well over a million hits.

"People are downloading it onto laptops, onto MP3 players. They're listening to it while they walk their dogs," Arent said.

The idea is working, he's convinced of that.

"We need to have an educated citizenry to make our system work," he added.

Arent isn't expected to read the entire bill by himself. Each voice-over actor is asked to read what they can. Some read a lot of pages. Some read less than a dozen. The volunteers are located all over the country.

While each actor is likely well versed in reading copy for a variety of situations, these volunteers can't read this copy with a lot of emotion.

"I had to read my part flat. No emotion. No bias. We couldn't show it in our voices at all," he said.

The Web site isn't motivated by left-wing or right-wing politics he says. Visitors can pick specific sections that they are interested in and ignore other sections.

To visit the Web site, go to www.hearthebill.org.