HB 264 is not meeting any organized resistance in the House. Right now it is hard to catch anyone in their office but it is looking good considering. We have enough votes in Law Enforcement to bring the Bill out of committee. We will be meeting with Chairman Driver on Monday and let him know we are ready to have a hearing on the Bill.
Our energy now must be focused on the Calendars Committee. In this committee only one person can stop a Bill from going to the Floor for a vote of the Full House.Here is a list of those Members. Those with an asterisk have already pledged support.
Chair : Beverly Woolley (Houston)
V. Chair ; Gene Seaman (Corpus)
Callegari (Katy),
Elkins (Houston),
Kolkhorst **,
V. Luna (Corpus),
McCall (Plano),
Miller **,
Rose **,
Turner(Houston),
Von Arsdale(Tomball).
Needless to say the riders in the Houston area are our most important key to getting the Bill to the Floor. Get off cards and letters today to these members who do not have asterisks by their names.
For all Representatives, Address all mail:
Honorable (Name)
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX. 78768-2910
Ask for their support on getting HB 264 to the Floor.
We are meeting with Elkins on Monday and Van Arsdale on Tuesday. At this point Emails are alright also if you can generate a lot of them, no phone calls until we request them please.
Rep. Griggs has introduced HB 1522 to allow white lining by motorcyclists in slow traffic. The only problem is it contains the same insurance and rider training provisions as currently contained in our helmet law. I am going to just leave this Bill alone right now. I will speak with him somewhere along the way about this Bill and the reason for the requirements.
HB 514 (Failure To Yield)
We have spoken with the Legislative Council in an effort to work out a substitute Bill to be offered in place of HB 514 when it comes to committee. The changes we worked out are these.
Define serious bodily injury:
Injury requiring hospital stay of two or more days or causing permanent physical or mental incapacitation.
1st offense:
In addition to any other penalty, include license suspension for 90 days and/ fine of $250 to go to Safety and Awareness Program.
2nd offense within three year period:
In addition to any other penalty, include fine of $250 to go to Safety and Awareness Program and/a minimum of 30 consecutive days in jail.
Write letters or postcards to your Rep. on this Bill while you have the writing materials out.
These high moisture days are slowing my movements and I just had 17 teeth extracted yesterday and dentures put in so that is giving me a fit right now also. Any help you can provide with your cards, letters, faxes or Emails will be greatly appreciated.
We still don't have a Bill number for the Insurance Bill but it is in Legislative Council and just awaiting a number. Get it to you as soon as we have one.
I forgot to add that the House passed the Bill to stop cities from using Red Light Cameras. That is the cameras installed in signal lights to ticket people who run red lights. Rep. Elkins did a great job presenting the Bill.
