HB 2617 has two sections in it that are detrimental to the motorcycling community. Section 151 eliminates the Motorcycle Safety Education Advisory Board, and sections 157/158 eliminate the Nonhighway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities Advisory Committee. Riders must have been making calls, because that bill saw a lot of buzz. Representative Hunt, chair of the house State Government and Tribal Affairs committee informed me that the committee was going to do a paring down of the bill prior to the hearing and issue a list of the sections that would be removed in the proposed substitute. Not surprisingly, he was good to his word, Before the committee was convened Mr. Hunt read all assembled the list of things that were being pared out. Both section 151 and sections 157/158 were on the list. (OPR-BC to Remove) I do not when the bill will be scheduled for executive action, but I am sure that it will be reported out of the committee. After all, ther is money to be saved, and we do have a budget crisis.

Here are the points that I had been pressing home to each member:
1.All operations of either board, no matter how slight, are fully funded by the stakeholder groups, with zero operating monies coming out of General or Transportation funds.
2.Both boards are fully supported by the stake holders.
3.Both boards facilitate a direct line of communication between the stake holders and the agency that oversees each program.
4.In a climate in which the average citizen feels disconnected from government, the abolishment of these two well functioning and effective boards sends the wrong message to people.

The tolling bill, HB 2093 is a different sort of animal. The legislature is hesitant to direct the Washington State Transportation Commission on how they do their routine business. During the course of my conversations the general feeling is that we need to address our concerns to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge – Citizen Advisory Committee in lieu of seeking a legislative solution. The Advisory Committee at least recommended that tolls remain the same, a recommendation that the Transportation Commission chose to categorically ignore in lieu of actually raising the rates across the board. Perhaps it is time for us to press for a hearing in House Transportation so that we can have a public discussion of how tolling policy is governed. I will definitely be in touch with Representative Clibborn’s office this coming Monday, and it would not hurt if riders started calling their representatives to ask them to request that House Transportation hear the bill.

There are two bills in the works, SB 6345, with the companion bill HB 2635, which makes using a non hands free cell phone or texting while driving a primary offense. Imagine that, actually telling the multi-tasking cager to pay attention to the driving. Distracted driving is perhaps one of the most serious issues facing the motoring public as a whole. Both bills were heard in committee on the 18th, and it looks like the Senate Transportation Committee will move the bill out next week. The executive board of the Washington Road Riders Association appeared before both committees in support of this measure. This is not one of those “feel good” things that protects someone from themselves. This is a proposal to reach right into the wallet of the idiots who feel that they have much better things to do than pay attention while they are herding a 5,000 pound SUV across the nation’s highways.

ABATE of Washington is continuing to pursue helmet usage reform. (HB 1964) The current version includes language that would require either motorcycle safety training of mandatory medical coverage if a rider does not wish to wear a helmet. No matter your opinion, this is a moot point. Neither Representative Clibborn (House Transportation) nor Senator Haugen (Senate Transportation) will bring the bill up for a hearing, so the main reason for having a bill is to give context to the conversation about freedom of choice. In my own personal opinion, the call for medical insurance is unnecessary, as there is no real public burden involved that merits the governmental intrusion into the lives of the citizens.

The final bill that is getting buzz, not only here in Olympia but also in the press is HB 2511. This issue is being championed by the Confederation of Clubs, the US Defenders, and ABATE of Washington. It address profiling of people “using the fact that a person rides a motorcycle or wears motorcycle-related paraphernalia as a factor in deciding to stop and question, take enforcement action, arrest, or search a person or vehicle with or without legal basis under the United States Constitution or the Washington state Constitution.” That was quoting directly from the legislation. The WRRA is deferring the official conversation to the people who are actively championing this cause, as they are definitely the subject matter experts. (Normally, when I end up on the side of the road it more readily involves something akin to “failure to file flight plan.”) That being said, I do think that when a law enforcement officer uses some sort of tenuous “probable cause” so that he can investigate a citizen for no more reason than because that person is riding a motorcycle it is not good police work. I am sure that it is not a wide spread behavior, but I am never comfortable when a person’s appearance is reason enough for law enforcement to deem it necessary to detain and question. That goes against my vision of the America I know and love.

Lastly, but definitely not the least, if you did not make it to Black Thursday you missed a great day. Kudos to Donnie “Mr. Breeze” from ABATE of WA and “Double D” from the Confederation of Clubs for all of the coordination work. Beautiful weather resulted in lots of riders actually being able to ride to the capitol. The north diagonal was filled to overflowing with motorcycles, and the halls were filled with well educated riders discussing their issues with their representatives. This is where the citizenship rubber meets the legislative road. If you sat at home and let everyone else do it you should be glad that the people who showed up did the heavy lifting.

If I have adequately shamed you, rest assured that there are still calls to be made and work to be done. It isn’t too late to lend a hand.

Like I say, if an old hippie from Texas can do it, how difficult can it be?

Ride Safe and Legislate Well

“Texas” Larry Walker
Governmental Relations Specialist
Washington Road Riders Association

The View From The Hill

Short sessions: they can be both trying and entertaining  When you toss in a projected budget shortfall, a short session can, and often does, approach chaos. Fortunately for the motorcycling community, most of our issues fall outside the main screen of the budgetary radar. The two exceptions are HB 2093 which looks at lowering the toll on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and HB 2617 which eliminates a whole slew of boards and commissions.

HB 2617 has two sections in it that are detrimental to the motorcycling community. Section 151 eliminates the Motorcycle Safety Education Advisory Board, and section 157 eliminates the Nonhighway and Off-Road Vehicle Activities Advisory Committee. The intent of the Gubernatorial request bill is to shut down all of the out dated boards and commissions that take up staff time and resources that are funded through the General or Transportation funds. This is a definite case of governmental bean counting, done with a broad stroke of the brush, which even the Governor’s policy staff admitted that there may be some things that do not need to be included in these across the board cuts. It has been left up to the legislature to pare things down to the essential cuts and save the rest. That is the way things are done in this town; propose, counter propose, negotiate, and repeat as necessary. It may sound sloppy, but it actually does get things done.

I have spent most of my time this year meeting with members of the State Government and Tribal Affairs committee. That is the committee that has to deal with HB 2617 and all of the affected stake holders.

Here are the points that I have been pressing home to each member:

1. All operations of either board, no matter how slight, are fully funded by the stakeholder groups, with zero operating monies coming out of General or Transportation funds.

2. Both boards are fully supported by the stake holders.

3. Both boards facilitate a direct line of communication between the stake holders and the agency that oversees each program.

4. In a climate in which the average citizen feels disconnected from government, the abolishment of these two well functioning and effective boards sends the wrong message to people.

Riders are encouraged to contact their state legislators and ask that they speak to the members of the committee. Feel free to use the talking points that I have already used. They work whether you are a road rider or on off road enthusiast. It keeps the message focused and on track.

Rumor has it that the bill will be heard on Thursday January 21^st. I am absolutely certain that the bill will be amended before it ever clears the committee. Perhaps if we get enough buzz sections 151 and 157 will be removed in a proposed substitute prior to the bill being heard, so make the call.

The tolling bill, HB 2093 is a different sort of animal. The legislature is hesitant to direct the Washington State Transportation Commission on how they do their routine business. During the course of my conversations the general feeling is that we need to address our concerns to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge – Citizen Advisory Committee in lieu of seeking a legislative solution. I will hold my opinion at this point. I am merely reporting the news.

There are two bills in the works, SB 6345, with the companion bill HB 2635, which makes using a non hands free cell phone or texting while driving a primary offense. Imagine that, actually telling the multi-tasking cager to pay attention to the driving. Distracted driving is perhaps one of the most serious issues facing the motoring public as a whole. The executive board of the Washington Road Riders Association has already expressed their support for the spirit of this measure. This is not one of those “feel good” things that protects someone from themselves. This is a proposal to reach right into the wallet of the idiots who feel that they have much better things to do than pay attention while they are herding a 5,000 pound SUV across the nation’s highways.

ABATE of Washington is continuing to pursue helmet usage reform. (HB 1964) The current version includes language that would require either motorcycle safety training of mandatory medical coverage if a rider does not wish to wear a helmet. No matter your opinion, this is a moot point. Neither Representative Clibborn (House Transportation) nor Senator Haugen (Senate Transportation) will bring the bill up for a hearing, so the main reason for having a bill is to give context to the conversation about freedom of choice. In my own personal opinion, the call for medical insurance is unnecessary, as there is no real public burden involved that merits the governmental intrusion into the lives of the citizens.

The final bill that is getting buzz here in Olympia is HB 2511. This issue is being championed by the Confederation of Clubs, the US Defenders, and ABATE of Washington. It address profiling of people “using the fact that a person rides a motorcycle or wears motorcycle-related paraphernalia as a factor in deciding to stop and question, take enforcement action, arrest, or search a person or vehicle with or without legal basis under the United States Constitution or the Washington state Constitution.” That was quoting directly from the legislation. The WRRA is deferring the official conversation to the people who are actively championing this cause, as they are definitely the subject matter experts. (Normally, when I end up on the side of the road it more readily involves something akin to “failure to file flight plan.”)

Finally, don’t forget Black Thursday. Everyone needs to get themselves free and down to Olympia on January 21^st. There will be reserved parking for motorcycles and plenty of people to help you navigate the system. What will you say when your children ask “what did you do to protect the world of motorcycling?” Do you really want to say “I sat at home and let everyone else do it?”

After all, if an old hippie from Texas can do it, how difficult can it be?

Ride Safe and Legislate Well

“Texas ” Larry Walker

I am currently working on getting in with the committee chair which will consider the bill, along with the members of the committee.  I will get the talking points to everyone this evening, but riders are advised to get ready to call their legislators.

Texas Larry Walker
WRRA Government Relations.

Contact: Jeff Hennie, MRF V.P. of Government Relations & Public Affairs

Washington DC Saturday, December 19, 2009 The US Senate passed a two month extension to the Highway bill in a rare Saturday Senate session. Just after the break of dawn, in the middle of one of Washington worst snow storms on record, the US senate passed a last minute extension of the Federal Highway programs. The House passed a similar measure earlier this week. The extension was needed because current programs expired on Friday December 18th, the extension will fund the programs through February 28th 2010. The measure will fund important road programs for the next two months, which is good; however these stop gap spending bills barely keep the highway projects and programs on life support. What we need is the full 6 year Highway Bill that Chairman Oberstar has written. However with the House and Senate and Obama administration spending tax dollars on everything but Transportation, that seems unlikely. President Obama had threatened to veto the spending bill due to some other, non transportation issues. The President is not expected to follow through on those threats. The legislation also contains some defense spending, and an extension to the Patriot Act. The MRF will keep you informed on this issue.

Here is the latest update on the proposed legislation to eliminate the Washington State Motorcycle Safety and Education Advisory Board (WMSAB).

Wednesday morning I got to meet briefly with Robin Arnold-Williams, the Director of Executive Policy from the Office of Financial Management. She is one of the senior policy advisors to the Governor. I reminded her that the operation of our board, indeed the entire program, was outside the general fund or the transportation fund, paid for strictly by the endorsement fees that we pay into the dedicated fund specifically set aside for that purpose.

Her take was that they were so concerned about cost saving that the policy personnel were even looking into the cost of the staff and supplies needed to conduct board business. I assured her that the staff was also funded through our endorsement fees. She indicated that she would look into the issue further. I fully intend to ensure that the budget figures are on her desk by the first part of next week.

Following that conversation I continued over to Department of Licensing (DOL) to start the process of capturing the data. While I was there I was pulled into a meeting with the Assistant Director concerning the WMSAB. This was a result of an E-mail that I had sent to Director Luce apprising her of the proposed demise of the board. She was not in her office, but she assigned the issue enough importance to forward my message to the AD. The agency places an amazing amount of value on the constituent feedback on our program. No matter where our conversation went that was an over-arching theme. They want a quality, codified method of communication between the stake holders and the agency.

Ya gotta love that.

Here are the bullets you need to capture when you call and/or write to your representatives or the Governor’s office.

• The WMSAB is absolutely invisible to the general fund or transportation fund portion of the budget. The funding stream is a completely separate, and dedicated, fund that with no impact on the regular budgets. It is our money being used for our program, at our request. In short, we are not a contributing part of the budget crisis.
• The WMSAB provides one of the most effective venues for communication of the wants, wishes, and concerns of the riding community directly into the heart of the agency that manages the program. This level of communication and cooperation is absolutely vital to the continued health of the program.
• The program, and all aspects thereof, are known throughout the nation as a model program to be emulated. It isn’t broken, so there is no need to fix it.

Let’s get those cards, letters, and phone calls going so that we can nip this in the bud, and I’ll see you at the motorcycle show.

Texas

“Texas ” Larry Walker
Government Relations Specialist
Washington Road Riders Association
wrraleg@aol.com
360-271-9285

Grab that doughnut and cup of coffee, or perhaps a beer and a brat, and settle back.

The good news is that the motorcyclists in Washington State survived the good intentions of the Washington State Legislature for another year with one win and no serious damage.  The irony is that the win and the damage were contained in the same bill.

HB 1403 (Addressing the detection of motorcycles and bicycles at vehicle-activated traffic control signals.) got caught up in the wrangling at cutoff in the house and did not see any floor action.  This could have meant that we were going to be required to wait until next year to try to get SB 5387, the companion bill for HB 1403, brought into play in the senate.  The lobbyist for the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (BAW) went to work looking for a bill with traction, related to motorcycling or bicycling, that the traffic signal language could be appended to.  He managed to find an innocuous (in his eyes) little technical correction bill that might work.  Here is where it gets to be fun.  The bill he found was SB 5482.

, was a bill requested by Washington State Patrol.  It started out as merely a technical correction bill, with the language being shopped out to stakeholders last summer.  The problem developed when WSP changed it to add language referring to FMVSS 218 back into the helmet definition.  This is contrary to what the riders of this state had enacted on their behalf in 2003.  The WRRA and ABATE of WA were there to remind the committee that WSP had reneged on their original language and was trying an end run on ESSB 5335 (2003).  In spite of our efforts the bill cleared the senate and House Transportation and was pulled to the floor calendar.  ABATE of WA took the lead on the continued opposition to this change in the helmet definition.  They were a major part of the coalition that drove the original legislation back in 2003.  Donnie Landsman, their Legislative Affairs Officer, orchestrated a good campaign against the reinsertion of the FMVSS 218 language into the RCW, to no avail.  The bill passed, with the HB 1403 language appended onto it.  The senate concurred with the amendment and SB 5482 was sent to the Governor.  It is scheduled to be signed at 10:00 on the 29^th of April.

So there you have it: a win and a loss in the same bill.  While we may be faced with more of the old officer discretionary stops and the ensuing roadside debate on the definition of a helmet, we do have an avenue of relief when the traffic signal will not locate our bikes.  I will be following up in a later article with my take on how to proceed with traffic signal issues.

As a side bar note on SB 5482, as a result of a friendly wager someone over at ABATE of WA, and you know who you are, owes me a case of Black Butte Porter.

Boards and Committees:

At the beginning of session the Motorcycle Safety Advisory Board and the Non Highway & ORV advisory committee were on the chopping block.  Of all of the bills looking at doing away with boards and committees (HB 2087, HB 2151, SB 5994 & SB 5995), only SB 5995 made it to the Governor’s desk.  Every time the bills got a hearing I was there to speak against them, both as the Government Relations Specialist, and on behalf of the American Motorcyclists Association.  After my testimony to the senate committee I got the opportunity to privately brief the Governor’s representative, and when we parted, she definitely understood that there was no fiscal imperative to eliminate either group.  I also had the opportunity to follow up with her and the staff person actually working the bills.  We also had good results in mobilizing the troops to call their representatives.  It then became a game of “wait and see,” as these bills could be brought back to life at any time prior to the close of session since they were tied to the budget.  It all paid off, because when the smoke had cleared the Safety Advisory Board and the Non Highway & ORV advisory committee both survived.

Now for the rest of the news:

These are the issues that had no traction at all.  (None of them cleared committee, and only one got a hearing)

SB 5652 (Requiring a reduction in toll rates charged to motorcycles) has been dropped in the senate and forwarded to Senate Transportation.  Representative Dan Roach (R-31) dropped HB 2093 (the house version) on Feb. 10.  Considering the budget issues, neither of these bills got a hearing.

HB 1964 (Modifying motorcycle helmet use requirements) was introduced into the house.  The original request was for language eliminating any requirement for helmet usage at the age of majority (18) with absolutely strings attached.  Unfortunately, through a series of miscommunications, the language from last year that calls for health insurance or rider training got introduced instead.  Neither the WRRA nor, to my understanding ABATE of WA, actually supported the health insurance or rider training language, but at the end of the day it was a moot point.  Under the current legislative lineup there was absolutely no chance for this bill to gain any traction at all.  It does serve as a starting point for conversation about accident prevention in lieu of injury prevention.

SB 5552 (Modifying restrictions on children riding motorcycles) is another attempt to regulate how responsible riders take their children riding.  We have been there before and demonstrated many times the there is no problem, to there is no problem to solve, but some people just need to regulate any behavior that seems to look “risky.”  The good news is that although the bill got a hearing, it did not pass out of committee prior to cutoff.  Hopefully this one is dead for quite a while.

Finally, there is HB 1344 (Exempting enclosed, three-wheeled passenger vehicles from the motorcycle endorsement requirement) which exempts these high mileage three wheeled cars that are starting to show up from being designated as a motorcycle or having a requirement to be endorsed to operate one.  It got introduced and then never saw the light of day.

That is about it for now.  I look forward to seeing you at the meeting Wednesday evening.

Until the next time, Ride safe and legislate well.

“Texas” Larry Walker Government Relations Specialist Washington Road Riders Association wrraleg@aol.com 360-271-9285