Legislative Update

Texas Motorcycle Rights Association
512-971-6777 - 275 Old Lexington Rd. Elgin, Texas 78621 www.tmra2.org

ONLY AS IMPORTANT AS YOU FEEL IT IS

I don’t know what it takes to get any interest or support out there in motorcycle land but I have a couple of thank you’s to send out to begin this note.

We had a hearing on our Equal Access Bill on Monday. We sent out a request for support and passed the word along to others. I say thank you to Terri Williams, Stephanie Parks and Britney Parks our TMRA 2 “Legislative Task Force” Members and Gypsy Mud Dauber. Stephanie, Mud Dauber and I testified in favor and the Sponsor, Rep. Thompson gave us one hell of a build up as upstanding citizens. I must say I was somewhat embarrassed by the lack of support we showed our sponsor.
Nonetheless it went well. It will come out of committee and be sent to Local & Consent of which our Sponsor is Chair. They asked today that you contact those Representatives not on the committee and ask for their yes vote on the Bill when it gets to the Floor. Now is the time to get that done.

Returned to the office and had this notice:
THANKS TO THE AMIGOS M/C FOR THEIR CONTINUING SUPPORTER MEMBERSHIP ANNUALLY. THANKS TWICE OVER FOR INCREASING THAT SUPPORT FROM A GOLD SUPPORTER MEMBER TO PLATINUM!!!When they can’t be there they help cover the expenses to have it done.

Next up is SB 1967 as amended, “we forgot to put in that $5 of our license fee goes into the Rider Education Fund”. I am happy to announce that the effort put out has brought results. We learned today that HB 1967 will be on the Floor for a vote of the Full Senate on Thursday 23rd. I will be sitting in the Gallery to watch the vote and it would be nice to have some company. How well I remember the other two times we had a vote like this. Especially the one that went right down to the wire at midnight. That crowd was the kind that memories are mad of and the celebration was unreal.

HB 4449 was heard today. That one says you can’t ride any child up to five years of age on a motorcycle and that any child must have their feet on the foot pegs. Several people testified in favor of that Bill and I alone testified against it. If you are interested in this Bill in any way let the Representatives hear from you on this one as well. Remember only talk on one issue (Bill) on each email, letter or phone call.

We ended up the day with HB 11 and HB 13 in a committee hearing. HB 11 repeals the authority for TxDOT to have any more dealings along the lines of the Trans Texas Corridor and HB 13 sets very strong guidelines under which a freeway can be turned into a toll road making it all but impossible to do. Both are fantastic Bills by Rep Leibowitz. About 30 people testified in favor of the Bill then Chairman Pickett said we have a pile of these not wishing to testify. Not one person opposed those Bills.
It was worth the long day.

To send an Email the address is:

Senate firstnamelastname@senate.state.tx.us

House firstnamelastname@state.tx.us

That’s it for this round.

Ride Free – Ride Sober
Sputnik
State Chair/tmra2