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Your Motorcycle Riders Foundation team in Washington, D.C. is pleased to provide our members with the latest information and updates on issues that impact the freedom and safety of American street motorcyclists. Count on your MRF to keep you informed about a range of matters that are critical to the advancement of motorcycling and its associated lifestyle. Published weekly when the U.S. Congress is in session.
Legislation Introduced in Congress Addressing Motorcycle Profiling
On Wednesday evening, Representatives Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Tim Walberg of Michigan, jointly introduced a legislative measure that addresses concern over the profiling of motorcyclists. H.Res.831, formally titled, “Promoting awareness of motorcycle profiling and encourage collaboration and communication with the motorcycle community and law enforcement officials to prevent instances of profiling” is what is referred to as a “simple” resolution. If voted on and passed, it does not carry the force of law, but rather, expresses the sentiment of a chamber.
The introduction of the measure itself is a first step towards addressing the issue of motorcycle profiling from a national perspective. Over the next several months, your MRF and our state partners, affiliates and members of the Anti-Profiling Action Group will need to secure additional co-sponsors for the resolution in hopes of a vote. Additionally, we will also need to work to get a similar bill introduced in the Senate chamber. Our work is certainly cut out for us, but we have cleared a major hurdle by getting the bill introduced. For those who are pursuing motorcycle anti-profiling laws in your own state legislatures, you should reference the activity in the U.S. House of Representatives as I trust it will serve helpful. You can view the bill by clicking on the link below:
https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hres831/BILLS-114hres831ih.pdf
We’ll be in touch with you in the coming weeks regarding next steps on the bill and how you can help. In the meantime, my sincerest thanks to everyone who aided in the effort to get H.Res.831 introduced. The activity this week is a direct result of the collaboration from the many motorcycling organizations that are in support anti-profiling language, including James “Doc” Reichenbach II, Chairman of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM), Frank Ernst, Chairman of the NCOM Legislative Task Force, and David “Double D” Devereaux, representing the Council of Clubs. The Anti-Profiling Action Group also includes the Committee Lead Russell Radke, MRF President Kirk “Hardtail” Willard, Committee Secretary Shelly Holcomb, MRF Board Rep Lenny Holcomb, and nationally known motorcyclists’ advocate Dick “Slider” Gilmore. It is truly representative of advocacy in action at a contentious time in Washington, DC. We should be proud of this first hurdle that we’ve cleared.
New Friends for a New Year
As you all know, election season is upon us. Though it means we will have to say goodbye to some of our congressional champions at the end of 2016, it also means there will be new faces and an incoming freshman class of legislators that we will need to build relationships with as we work towards achieving our federal legislative and regulatory goals. Along these lines, this week I attended an event in Washington for new candidate Scott Taylor who is running for a congressional seat in Virginia.
Mr. Taylor is currently a member to the Virginia House of Delegates but hopes to take his work to the national spotlight by running for federal congress. He is a former Navy Seal and during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Taylor was a SEAL sniper. I spoke with the candidate this week and was happy to hear that he had a strong familiarity with motorcyclists and spoke highly of the Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists (VCOM) referencing his work with them on a recent state issue concerning auxiliary lights. After speaking with Mr. Taylor and discussing his candidacy with VCOM, I am excited about the possibility of Scott Taylor serving in Congress. If he is indeed elected, we’ve already started off with a strong relationship in 2017 thanks to VCOM and our rider friends in Virginia.
Megan’s Take: Building & Strengthening Bridges with our Allies in Washington
Speaking of new friends, this week I sat down with Kathy Van Kleek from the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC). Many of you are familiar with the MIC and their work representing manufacturers and distributors of motorcycles, scooters, motorcycle/ATV parts and accessories in Washington, DC and across the U.S. And though we sometimes disagree on personal choice issues regarding riding gear, they have been friends to us in Washington over the years and we have aligned on issues more often than not. For instance, the MIC wants to be helpful in securing accommodating language regarding participants within the newly established Motorcyclist Advisory Committee (you’ll recall the congressional letter that we worked on last month concerning this). In addition, the MIC is serving alongside your MRF on the RPM Working Group (this is the group that’s working to contain EPA’s overreach relating to the conversion of street bikes to racing bikes).
The point here is, we don’t have to agree on very single issue to have respect for one another. After all, the underlying principal to the MRF is freedom. Freedom to ride, freedom to choose and freedom to disagree! I think we can do all of those things and still maintain a positive working relationship with the MIC.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF WEEKLY BULLETINS
Congress officially adjourned this week and began their mass exodus from Washington, DC. First on the congressional agenda are the political conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia followed by a ‘recess’ in their home states. As such, I’ll be taking a temporary break from the weekly bulletins until Congress is back in session come September 6. Don’t worry though – your MRF staff will still be around and preparing for the Meeting of the Minds in Oklahoma City (are you registered yet?!). You’ll still receive press releases and other updates via email as issues pop up. And you can always feel free to reach out to me with questions or comments. Until then, enjoy your summer, stay cool and ride free.
Your Friend in Washington,
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Megan Ekstrom
Vice-President of Government Affairs & Public Relations
The Motorcycle Riders Foundation