Now Comes The Big Show

I am amazed that both bills we are running now have gotten a hearing.  The Lane Filtering Bill, SB5623 had one on Tuesday, and it went pretty good.  I hope to hear it is going to Executive Session in the Transportation Committee soon.  The main thing though is our Helmet Bill, SB5198 is scheduled for a hearing on Monday, Feb. 9th at 3:30.  That is the bill I have been trying to keep myself focussed on.   It is great that we have made enough progress over the last few years, that we are truly being taken seriously, and it ahs led to only the second hearing on the helmet issue in many many years.

This is the bill I want most of all to make it out of the Transportation Committee, and then out of the Rules Committee for a vote on the Senate floor.  This is the bill that was the reason I accepted the LAO position with ABATE.  To keep this fight going, and not just stop fighting.  You don't get anywhere doing that.  in fact, you end up losing ground.  I didn't want to lose ground and have to regain the credibility the motorcycle community has fought so long and hard to secure.

Getting a hearing on the lane filtering bill was great, and from the sounds of the support I keep hearing for it spreading, I am hoping for good things with that bill.  But it is, and always has been the helmet bill that is the focus of this fight.

I am planning on testifying at the hearing on Monday.  But I want to have my thoughts in order before I do.  To find one perspective, one point to drive home to the Committee.  With the Lane Filtering hearing there was a lot of redundancy in the testimony.  It helped to drive home the key points of the bill, but there were other opportunities that were missed.  That is why I want to have what I want to say laid out, and well rehearsed so it flows more easily. Over the next day or so, I am going to put my thoughts into a cohesive form.  The question I am trying to answer now is which aspect of the helmet issue do I want to push, and feel most comfortable drawing up the facts for.  Once I make that decision, the rest should flow much more easily into place in my mind.

Catch ya on the road sometime...