Legislative Update

Please pass along.
We felt that last session was a tough one in the capitol but this year our legislators are behaving like the Federal government. There is a feeding frenzy taking place this year as Party members turn against each other. Time has gone out the window as Floor battles delay committee hearings by as much as 3-4 hours from the posted start time, making for some 16-17 hour days at the capitol. We are hard pressed to find quality time with legislators to discuss our issues. Still we move slowly forward.

HB 264 Helmet Bill
We have met with and received pledges of support from, all members on the Calendars Committee except Chairman Wooley. She still has concerns about removing the insurance amendment. She is currently in her home district. We met with Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson today and he said he would talk to her. He said not to worry that he knew she would come around once he explained it to her. Of course we are sure she will as we believe we could bring her around if we could just get 5 minutes with her. Count on our friend Jerry to come through.91 Reps are now yeses on the Bill for a Floor vote.

SB 1310 - The companion Bill for HB 264
Not being able to catch up with Chairman Woolley we decided to work the Senate side for support of this Bill. Walking down the hall to Senator Seligar's office we met him coming down the hall in the opposite direction. He stopped amd asked where we were headed. Learning we had been headed for his office he turned around and said, well let's go.
You Panhandle Warriors remember we met with him during the campaign and promised him a our support and a victory. We also told him we expected the same support from him in the capitol. Well we got it. That was one of the most enjoyable meetings we have had this year. Put him down as yes. We will take him an application soon and he also wants to be a member of the Texas Chapter of the "LAWMAKERS" Club.

Moved on to the office of Senator Deuell who is a Doctor. Going to be a tough job here uh? He wasn't in but the reception from his staff was amazing. They fully understood our dilemma and were totally supportive of our Bill. An Aide walked over that we had met in the cafeteria a few days earlier when he introduced us to his niece and nephew as the hero of the capitol. He said I have some friends who ride, not hardcore bikers like you but when they heard I had met you they freaked. Could I get a picture of us together? That would really give me a standing of reverence with these friends. WE took the picture and then autographed his Aide card. If we don't get Senator Deuell's vote it won't be their fault.

Now it was time to meet the lion in his den. We went to the office of Senate Transportation to speak with Jeremiah, Committee Assistant to Chairman Todd Staples. We know this will be our most challenging person to bring on board. We explained the history of our helmet law to him in full detail and also acknowledged that Chairman Staples probably does not support the Bill. We explained that while we would appreciate his support for SB 1310 we were primarily more interested today in whether he would oppose the Bill. We explained we have the votes for passage in the House as all our Bills receive but we know it will be up to him personally whether we get a Senate hearing. It is our understanding that the purpose of a committee hearing is to determine whether a Bill has enough support for passage on the Floor and should not be used for personal reasons. We explained we were looking for a response from him to just one question at this time until we can get up with him personally. Whether or not he votes for the Bill, if we can show him we have carded enough committee votes to bring the Bill out would he give us a hearing and a vote.
We will give him one week to reply to us and then it will be up to you to take care of persuading him to get with it. Staples is in Senate District 03 so you Warriors in that district should start generating cards or Emails now asking that he bring SB 1310 up for a vote in committee Get your friends and family members to contact him also. The rest of you get ready.

Senator Todd Staples todd.staples@senate.state.tx.us
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711-2068

HB 514 Failure To Yield
We have been working with the House Transportation Committee members to get votes to bring this Bill out of committee. Again the chairman will be our primary adversary. Not because he doesn't like the Bill but because he doesn't like us. Those who have been on board for a while remember that we had the same problem with the Transportation Committee Chairman for our first helmet Bill in '97. After requesting calls be made to this man it took only three days for him to walk toward us in the hall with hands upraised, palms facing forward and say we heard them Sputnik, call them off, you will get your hearing on Monday. The Bill passed and this chairman became one of our strongest supporters in the House. We can do that again as a last resort if necessary. Chairman Krusee will not beat us!!

We shall stop by Senator Wentworth's office in the morning and ask that he request to view the tapes of the helmet stops last week that resulted in illegal tickets. Your calls to his office may help to move him off the fence. Do what you can with calls to get him to do this. If he won't do this we will stop wasting time and try to overcome any opposition he w may have during the committee hearing.

We will be in Bandera this weekend and then your chairman will have to be in Houston for an undetermined amount of time starting Monday. I will keep in touch daily and count on you to step up as the leaders I know you to be and pass our wishes to each other and to those in the capitol.

WE have several other issues we are covering and will get them posted, hopefully tomorrow.

Wednesday we went to the office of each member of the Transportation Committee and asked them to bring up copies of HB 514 to allow their Reps to read the Bill and get ready to discuss it with us this week. Did the same with staff of the Insurance committee and asked them to pull up HB 3277 for their Reps to read.

Had several things to tell you today but today is already yesterday as happens a lot lately so here is where we stand as of yesterday (Tuesday).
As you know HB 264 is out of committee and ready to go to Calendars Committee. Da'Lady and I did a little more in depth study of the committee and we have enough votes to pass out of Calendars. We shall meet with Chairwoman Woolley in the morning and ask if she will move our Bill within the next two weeks. If the Bill comes out of Calendars we have enough votes for passage on then House Floor.

There has been no movement yet on HB 514 or HB 3277. We are keeping an eye on the Road Block Bills and will yell when they are posted for committee.

HB 823 was heard yesterday and will be passed out. This Bill allows you to carry a handgun in your vehicle without a license.

Yesterday while waiting for the Hiouse Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting we crossed over to the Senate side for a time. Every office received a visit as we asked them to pull up SB 1310, companion Bill to HB 264. They were informed we would be in to discuss that Bill as soon as HB 264 clears Calendars.
Again we went to Senator Wentworth's office and spoke with Joe. Told him about 4 more illegal tickets issued by DPS Troopers this past week. WE asked what it was going to take to get him to listen and Joe said he didn't know. We told him to find out and tell us and we would get it for him. Of course if every rider who has gotten an illegal helmet ticket or otherwise been hassled because of the helmet law had writtren him a letter it wouldn't be necessary for me to keep going back. If have worked several hundred of these damned tickets and gotten them thrown out and according to Joe they have not received ONE LETTER from anyone getting tickets. We will go hunting fiorv Wentworth this afternoon but if you can't even get off your collective asses and call his office with your stories we are not going to get the helmet Bill out of committee in the senate as Wentworth is on that committee. That will mean we have wasted about 400 meetings on this Bill for nothing and I don't like wasting time.
Phone number for Wentworth : 512-463-0125 If you want this Bill passed let him know NOW! If not then let me know.

LAWSUITS - THE GOOD
We have finally found some riders with enough Balls to file a lawsuit for Illegal helmet tickets rather than just sitting on a barstool and bitching about it. The tickets came from DPS. I contacted an attorney and talked to one of the guys today. I asked if he was certain he was going through with it and he said yes. I then asked permission to contact Chief Beckworth and ask him to pull the tape of the stop. He said yes, do whatever I needed to do. Called the Chief and he wasn't in the office. He called back while wwe were in a committee hearing but we spoke to him briefly. Explained that we had received more complaints of illegal tickets from his troopers. He said "Sputnik we are going to work with you on this. I will send out another memo and keep doing it until we get it right. We then asked if he would pull the tapes of the stop and review them. He replied "Sputnik you know I will do it, I have done it before." We then told him we were probably filing lawsuits this time and he said he could understand that. We will meet with him later this morning and get things moving. It really brightened my day to learn that after Gary received the first illegal ticket at 8:00am on the day the law took effect and Music filed and won, his suit in Bridgeport someone else is finally going to stand up.

AND THE BAD
Talked to AIM Attorney Bill Smith yesterday and he let us know that the lawsuit for the incident at the TEA Party in Hondois coming to trial next week Your chairman will be in Houstion starting Monday until this trial is over. That means it will be up to the rest of you to keep in contact with your senator and representative on these Bills until this trial ends.Got to grab a nap. Was on the computer until 4:30am Tuesday morning, took a bath, shaved and headed for the capitol at 5:40am. Spent over 15 hours there Wednesday and am back on the computer now.
It is after 2:00am meaning I have less than three hours to nap, bath, shave and head back to the Hill.

Goodnight.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Bolin, MRF President
karen@mrf.org (e-mail)

March 29, 2005

#05NR04 - MRF Responds to Dr. Jeffrey Runge and the Detroit Free Press

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) has recently issued two letters in response to separate incidents involving the very public maligning of motorcyclists and motorcycling. The MRF has joined with other motorcycle organizations, and individual riders, in a united expression of concern.

On Monday March 14th, 2005, Dr. Jeffrey Runge, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Director addressed the delegates attending the Lifesavers Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. Numerous attendees reported Dr. Runge’s disparaging remarks regarding motorcyclists. The MRF has responded and is currently in the process of working with staff to Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta to address Dr. Runge’s remarks. The Department of Transportation oversees NHTSA.

On Monday March 21st, 2005, an editorial column, titled "No Brain, Our Gain", written by Brian Dickerson, appeared in the Detroit Free Press. In his column, addressing ABATE of Michigan’s recent success moving legislation in the Michigan State Senate to amend the Michigan helmet law, Mr. Dickerson called for mandatory organ donation, and alluded to motorcyclists being denied emergency medical coverage. Furthermore he likened this legislation, and the motorcyclists who support it, to Jack Kevorkian and the tragic case of Mrs. Schiavo in Florida.

The MRF responses are now posted on the MRF website at: http://www.mrf.org/positionpapers.php

We met with the staff of all members of the Insurance and Transportation Committees yesterday. We asked that they print out a copy of HB 514 and HB 3277 to be read by the appropriate committee members and we would be coming by Tuesday to discuss the Bills. HB 514 to Transportation and HB 3277 to Insurance.
Would appreciate cards, letters or Emails to the members of these committees over the holidays. The address for all House members is:
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78768-2910

Transportation HB 514
Krusee Chair
Phillips V. Chair
Callegari
Casteel
Deshotel
Flores
Hill
West
Hamric

INSURANCE HB 3277
Smithee Chair
Seaman V. Chair
Eiland
Isett Sponsor
Bill Keffer
Oliveira
Taylor
Thompson
Van Arsdale

Would be helpful if they found a pile of correspondence on their desk when they return from their Easter break Tuesday morning. We have only six weeks to get our Bills passed by the House. Your involvement would be appreciated.
We had hoped to be showing Senator Wentworth a list of those who have been harassed because of the helmet law amendments this coming week. We have received only one and that one was recent. We have gone to court or otherwise intervened in many cases of this type and are certain you haven't forgotten. This man is our key to senate passage of HB 264 but he wants to see some instances of riders being treated poorly under the current law. That puts HB 264 in your court. Can't use any of the instances without your say soWe will be in Axtell this weekend and in Bandera next weekend. While in Bandera we will be meeting with Jim concerning a Rally on his Ranch in 2006.
HAPPY EASTER.

Stop the calls to Lon Burnums office immediately. Message has been received.

Thank you all.

Chairman Driver called a Law Enforcement Committee meeting at his desk today and:
Passed out HB 264

The vote was 6-0 with Lon Burnum not voting. Call the following members of the committee and thank them immediately.

Chairman Driver 512-463-0574
V. Chair Jackson 512-463-0468
Members;
Suzannah Hupp 512-463-0684
Stephen Frost 512-463-0692
Glenn Hegar 512-463-0657
Marc Veasey 512-463-0716

Let Lon Burnum know of your dissatisfaction with his non vote at 512-463-0740
Thanks to all who took part yesterday.

There was a really good turnout at Breakfast With The Bikers. ABATE did their usual great job of organizing the event. During the breakfast many of those present visited with the legislators who were not present in their offices.

Rebecca and I did lunch with Clif Burdette to talk about having Billboards for MC Safety and Awareness made up and put out across the state. With joint effort of Motorcycle Safety Division and B.A.N.D. this should become a reality in the near future.

We had the committee hearing on HB 264 in a hearing room packed to the max with Riders. A couple of women got up and tearfully asked that the helmet law be reinstated but basically it was our show. Da'Lady laid out the Bill thoroughly and a few riders testified. The Bill was left in committee as is usual. To all those who took the time to be there your presence did make a difference. Rep Frost, the undecided vote, had told us prior to the hearing that he would support bringing the Bill out. Rep. Burnum was the only surprise during the day. He went back on his word and said he could not support the Bill after telling us he would. Something those in his district should remember. Prior to the hearing Rep Hupp signed onto the Bill as a cosponsor. After the hearing she congratulated us on our professionalism and said we had won the vote. It will come out next Monday.

Thanks to all the riders from ABATE, Texas COC, TMRA and of course our Warriors who attended the days happenings. You gave me a recharge that was really need as we go into the second half of the session. Once again other states could take lessons from you on how to work together.

It is time now for letters to your legislators on HB 514 and HB 3277. The session is half way over now so don't waste time on getting those messages out. It might be a good time to take advantage of Email on these Bills. For Reps who use Email the address is first name.lastname@house.state.tx.us (Example) john.smithee@house.state.tx.us for the insurance committee chair. Go to www.capitol.state.tx.us and click on house committees. Check out Transportation Committee for HB 514 and then check on Insurance Committee for HB 3277. Click on each individual member name and it will give you all the contact information for that member. Rep Isett is our sponsor for HB 3277.

SB 1310, the companion Bill for HB 264 has been sent to Transportation and Security Committee. This is a good committee for us. It will also be the real test of whether we pass this Bill or not. Senator Wentworth is on this committee. If he votes with us we have won. However he told Dee yesterday that he needed some examples of the illegal tickets, searches or harassment under the current Law. Please contact the office immediately with your story Thanks,

Cut and paste this address and see the class room version of the Wall Street Journal article.

http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/05feb/poli_helmet.htm

Don't forget "BREAKFAST WITH THE BIKERS" is coming up this Monday - March 21st. It will be in the reserved section of the Capitol Cafeteria from 7-10:00am. This is an annual event sponsored by Texas ABATE Confederation. If you haven't attended this event you have missed out on an opportunity to visit with the legislators in a relaxed and friendly environment. They also have some fine goodies piled high on the tables with plenty of beverages. (don't BYOB).

This year for those of you who would like to hang out a little longer than usual they will have a special treat for you. After your tummy is full you can visit some of those legislators who don't make it to the breakfast and collect those signed cards to use for a chance at the $1000 giveaway.

Also at 1:30 pm you can observe your government at work by attending the LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AND WATCH THE DEBATE ON HB264.
Now that should give you some incentive to give Robert one of those three days he asked you for. We recommend that you get to the Capitol Parking Garage early and park there. The first two hours are free and then it is $ .75 for the next hour. All day is only $6. If you prefer to park closer you could park at the meters that we reserved for Legislative Day and put in $3 each three hours. That is your choice to make.Come on down and join the fun. It don't get much better than this.

We were down talking to Da'Lady today and she says there seems to be a movement by the Republican Leadership to stop HB 264 from coming out of committee. We decided to get some Republicans to sign on as cosponsors of the Bill. Rep Terry Keel said yes immediately. Now let's get Jim Pitts signed on as the other Cosponsor.
TELEPHONE TIME WARRIORS.
Everyone in Jim Pitt's district, or not, give his office a call and ask him to sign on to HB 264 as a cosponsor at 512-463-0516. I will stop by his office some time tomorrow and see if he has gotten the calls.
Senator Hinojosa has gotten the companion Bill filed before Friday's deadline. The Bill number is SB 1310. We should know which committee to start working in the senate shortly. Get those call;s going to Rep. Pitts now.

THE LONG AWAITED INSURANCE BILL NUMBER HAS FINALLY BECOME REALITY.
HB 3277 By Rep. Isett gives us a number for the final Bill we have introduced this session.
PASS IT ON!!!!

Things are going well for us at the capitol except that with HB 2, School reform and HB 3, Tax Bill it is getting mighty hard to connect with the actual legislators right now. They are staying on the Floor until as late as midnight but we catch who we can before they get there.

Just want to let you know our TV Show is drawing some fantastic response this session. Calls and Emails are coming in instantly when we finish the show. Everyone at the capitol is talking about it. A high school government teacher saw last nights show and asked if we could speak to her class.
A group of government students were in the capitol today. I was talking to a man from Kentucky who said he saw the show last night and it was the greatest thing he had ever seen. During the conversation several of the students stood waiting and when we finished they all wanted me to write something to them and autograph it. I told them you got to be kidding but they said they watch the show and it was great. We are still hoping to get the show on line in the near future, at least in Texas. It would really be an asset if several Warriors would do this in their city. Then we wouldn’t have to put it on line.

Now on to political happenings:

We still haven’t gotten a number for our Insurance Bill.

HB 264
Rep. Escobar has signed on as Co Author of our Bill. Based on the yes votes received thus far and the ones we have reason to believe will say yes once we manage to catch up with them we are probably in good shape with this Bill. The Law Enforcement committee is on line, it is just a case of scheduling. If we don’t get scheduled by a week from Monday we will probably be asking for calls so stay tuned for the request. Rep Vilma Luna is the only one we have not gotten to speak with on Calendars. We would appreciate CALLS from any riders in the Flour Bluff area down by Corpus. If she gets a few calls from riders in Flour Bluff we have Calendars wired now. Come on Gypsys you are very strong in the Corpus Area so you are bound to know a few people in that town that you could get to call her office. Call 512-463-0484. Tell them you are from Flour Bluff and ask for support for HB 264. Call our 800 number and let us know you called her. PLEASE HELP!

We got an opportunity to get with a few Senators today. My Senator, Mike Jackson, Dist. 11 said I always support you Sputnik, Senator Gallegos, Dist. 06 said of course and Senator Lucio, Dist. 27 gave a thumbs up and said I’m with you. Of course Senator Madla, Dist. 19 is on board with the Bill. Any pledges of support are good but the best meeting of the day was when we finally found Senator Hinojosa, Dist. 20 in his office. We sat down to discuss HB 264 and he said he would carry the Bill when it came across to the senate. He asked “Is that what you want to know?” We told him we had hoped he would offer a companion Bill in the Senate so we could know what committee it would go to and begin work on the senate committee as soon as possible. His Reply was, “you want me to file a companion Bill, I can do that. Whatever you want we’ll do.” He immediately called in his Legislative Aide and told him to go file the companion Bill. We thanked him and left the office.
We anticipate either State Affairs or Transportation. In either committee we already know we will have a majority of the votes now but State Affairs Chair is Senator Duncan and Transportation Chair is Senator Todd Staples. Neither are supportive of our issues but if Senator Wentworth comes on board it will make all the difference. We should have an answer from him by next week. He appears to be leaning our way so keep those cards and faxes going to his office.

HB 514
Rep Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton has signed on as coauthor of our Failure to yield Bill. We shall begin talking to the members of the Transportation Committee on this Bill by the middle of next week.

Chair Mike Krusee - V. Chair Larry Phillips
Members Bill Callegari, Carter Casteel, Joe Deshotel, Kino Flores, Peggy Hamric, Fred Hill and Buddy West. This will be a good committee for this Bill if Chairman Krusee will just bring the Bill to the Floor. We shall call later this week for some appointments to begin next week. We can be reasonably sure we have at least five supporters on this committee now but we don’t take anything for granted until we hear from them. Start your cards and faxes going to these Reps. now. Ask them to support bringing HB 514 out of committee.
That’s it for this round. Please take the actions requested and let us hear from you once in a while.
Sputnik

We now have 2004 Delegate Rockers. If you attended either Convention you may purchase a Rocker for $3.00. Get your friends to attended to order at the same time and we save postage.
Thanks,

Just a reminder that Breakfast with the Bikers is coming up soon.

You can reserve a room at the Travelodge 8300 I35 in Austin. Ask for the ABATE rate, rooms are $39.00 and $49.00 according to size.

We will be having our state board meeting at 4 PM then a briefing meeting at 6 PM on Sunday March 20th.

Breakfast will be in the Capitol cafeteria between 7 AM and 10 AM on Monday March 21st. Now that our bills are starting to hit committees we need a strong presence to push them through. I hope to see everyone there.

Thanks Robert

May is Motorcycle Safety & Awareness month.

Many Texas riders across the state are getting involved with contacting their Mayor's office to request that thier Mayor sign and present a Proclamation for Motorcycle Safety & Awareness to the riders in thier community.

Their Goal is for news to reach as many drivers in the community as possible to once again make them aware motorcycles on the road... and to request that they drive safely to help save the lives of our brothers and sisters.

Making an appointment with the Mayor and City Council to pick up a Proclamation in person is very simple to set up. Once the appointment is set up all that needs to happen is for the riders in that city & community to SHOW UP. Most of the medias will run a story on the presentation of this proclamation so be sure to invite them as soon as the meeting date and time is set up. Then have a picture taken of your group with the Mayor so it can be placed in the local newspaper or on the local cable channel. Non-riders will more seriously consider the request to drive safe around motorcycles when they see that they'r elected officials are supporting that request. But it's up to us to set all this in motion.

This is also the first step in opening the door for Share the Road presentations to get signs place in cities across the state. TMRA has the best Share the Road program set up and will be happy to help set up the presentations. We will give you a contact email to discuss with Gary DuPriest on how to set up the Share the Road presentation for your City Counsil meeting.

The participation of each club, organization or group of independents in obtaining at least one proclamation (or more) WILL make a difference. To request information files and get the Proclamation going for your city, send an email to Butterfly : sudsnbuttrfly@aol.com

The steps are very simple and worth our time. Educating the public on Motorcycle Safety & Awareness begins in our own backyards.

There will be a webpage set up very soon where a list of riders & cities currently setting up meetings will be posted & monitored daily to keep us all informed of the progress.

VIEW LAST YEAR's 2004 PROCLAMATIONS CAMPAIGN :http://sudsandbutterfly.homestead.com/Proclamations2004.html

Those of you who did such an OUTSTANDING job last year.. well you know what to do.. and it's time to do it again. Hope to hear from all of you again -very soon.

Ride Safe ~bttrfly
Member of TMRA2 & ABATE
Independent Supporter of Texas COC
http://sudsandbutterfly.homestead.com/

Just another quick update. We now have all seven members of Law Enforcement Committee pledged to vote for HB 264. It will probably be heard early next week. Just because we have them all on board doesn't mean we don't need riders to show up when we get the date for the hearing. After it passes you can all spread out and ask another Rep or two to support the Bill.

As of today we now have five members of the Calendars Committee on board to vote yes on the Bill including the Chair. We anticipate having the Vice chair come on board tomorrow.
Reps. Seaman, Callegari, Velma Luna, McCall, Turner and Van Arsdale still need cards letters or faxes. No phone calls yet please. Get back with you as soon as we know the date for the hearing or get more of the Calendars Committee members on board.

Ok Austin Minutemen, it is about time to live up to your name again. Don't leave me in that committee room alone.

Only 10 days left to get your name on the Ballot for the May Election. You may Email your request with three names of endorsement from anywhere in the state to run for chairman or three names for members in the district if you want to run for District Advisor.Current office holders must send in request to place their name on the Ballot the same as a new person. Currently we have only one candidate for State Chair and three candidates for District Advisor. Come on Warriors give it a shot. You never know what you can do until you try.