April 4, 2015
Transportation
President Obama released his ideal transportation bill this week, reports the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF). Known as the GROW AMERICA 2.0 act, this blueprint is essentially the same draft he has circulated before that has fallen on deaf ears in Congress. It’s widely accepted that this bill is dead on arrival in Congress. Obama’s bill idea would spend $478 billion over six years, which is where we need to be. However, he never suggests how to pay for the legislation, a major sticking point in the highway funding process. Certainly we do need a long term bill, just not this one.
The President’s bill idea again contains the language to circumnavigate the lobby ban placed on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA). Currently, the administration is banned from using taxpayer money to lobby state legislatures. President Obama’s bill would “allow the Secretary (of Transportation) or his designee to engage in activities with States and State legislators to consider proposals related to motorcycle helmet laws.”
This ambiguous language dissolves the ban and allows for President Obama to not come out for helmet laws. According to a high ranking Department of Transportation (DOT) official, as told to the MRF, the language may be interpreted by the DOT to “work with states to relax helmet use laws, because it doesn't say that the designee would work to enact laws, just proposals. Perhaps some of those proposals could be to allow for adult choice of helmet use; you never know.”
The fact is we do know. Never in the history of the MRF has an official from DOT ever even considered relaxing helmet laws. It doesn't stop there; the draft also has a provision to fund states that want to have graduated licensing standards. This bill is unlikely to gather any support on Capitol Hill, but it is telling of what the President really wants.
Privacy
The United States Senate has addressed the event data recorder (EDR) data ownership issue. Currently the ownership of the information captured on an EDR is not clear. This S. 766, sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Hoeven (R-ND), would make the data the property of the vehicle owner or lessee. Not many motorcycles have EDRs currently, but some do, and certainly more are coming as technology creeps into motorcycling. The MRF asks that you contact your senators and ask them to cosponsor this legislation. Similar legislation is forthcoming in the House of Representatives.
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