SMRO’s Hitting the Phones

In the Senate, our focus the last few weeks has been on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. This is the committee with jurisdiction over most of the motorcycle priorities we won in the House bill.

Over the last two weeks, nearly 1,000 MRF members, who live in one of 25 states with a Senator on the committee, have answered our call to action. To reinforce our message with these critical Senators, SMRO leaders in specific states and your D.C. team have done conference calls with Senate offices. Over the last two weeks, nine states have participated in a call with Senate staff, pressing them to include our hard-fought motorcycle provisions in a Senate bill.

Special thanks to leaders in Alaska, Massachusetts, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin for taking the time to join these phone calls and make the connection between the riders back home and the lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

In the coming weeks, we plan on having other states join in this process. We are already working out the details for calls with leaders in Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan.

We are fortunate to not only have great leaders in these states, but great leaders throughout the country. Having the ability to tap into this talent is vital to our collective success in Washington D.C.

MRF President and Vice President Score Cosponsors

While the last few months turned our focus to the highway bill in the House of Representatives, we haven’t forgotten other priorities like H. Res 255 regarding motorcyclists profiling.

Strict rules regarding how the House has operated since the middle of March made it difficult to add cosponsors to legislation. However, recently the House has relaxed some of its internal protocols, making it easier to add cosponsors.

Late last week, we added our first new cosponsors since right before the pandemic struck. It’s fitting that the two new cosponsors were direct results of the work done by MRF President Kirk “Hardtail” Willard and Vice President Jay Jackson.

As you may remember, Hardtail drove Congressman Tom Tiffany (WI-R) home from the airport after the two ended up on the same flight back from D.C. last month. Obviously, 3.5 hours in the car with Hardtail did the trick, and the Congressman became the 7th member of the Wisconsin delegation to sign onto the resolution.

In January, Jay Jackson attended an event in Kentucky with the riders of the Bluegrass State. In attendance was Congressman Brett Guthrie. The riders in Kentucky and Jay worked their magic, and the Congressman just joined H. Res 255 as a cosponsor.

With these two additions, we now have 139 cosponsors of H. Res 255 the motorcyclists profiling resolution.