This page contains information about our elected official's voting records with regard to the inherently un-American Government drive to force Adult American Citizens to "protect themselves" by wearing motorcycle helmets that have been proven to cause far more harm than good.

Helmet Law Repeal status

Legislation alert!!!

For the 1999 legislative session, we submitted 3 bills. Here is a synopsis of the intent. Click on the bill number to use the legislative gopher to review the bill history.

Helmet Law Reform (Part II) - HB3632 - Since Governor Kitzhaber decided to abuse his Executive branch power by forcing the Democrats to kill our bill in committee, we flexed a little political muscle ourselves and got us a brand new helmet amendment bill introduced! This bill will probably go through the House Water and Environment Committee where we have solid majority support. We also have 32 confirmed yes votes in the House. Our helmet amendment bill will go to the Governor's desk whether he likes it or not. And Vicki Walker, Peter Courtney and a few others who publicly disrespected us are going to find out what it's like to run a political campaign when Bikers are working for their Opponent.

STATUS:

Came out of the Water and Environment with a 7-9 "do pass" recommendation. Devlin and Taylor voted against us. Welsh (Chair), Kafoury, Merkley, Atkinson, Gianella, Kruse and Morgan voted for us.
Passed the House 6/16/99 36-24. Hill and Walker tried unsuccessfully to kill us before the floor vote. Hill disrespected us with his trademark "head, pavement, splat" line. Devlin and Walker gave speeches against us. Merkley, Leonard, Kruse, Witt, Wilson and Gianella gave speeches for us.
Came out of the Senate Rules Committee hearing with a "do pass" recommendation. Yes votes were Starr (Chair), Shannon (Chair of Transportation Committee) and Tarno. Committee Member Senator Beyer is a solid supporter but was absent for the vote. Senator Courtney voted no and disrespected us while making a fool of himself, as usual. Representative Welsh, Senator George and Senator Fisher testified on behalf of this bill. Their testimony was so compelling that no further input from BikePAC or ABATE was needed.
The full Senate vote, where we passed 17-13 earlier in the session, failed 15-14! This was due almost certainly to massive pressure from the Governor. The usual anti-freedom suspects voted no. Senator Metsger, a Freshman who voted with us the first time around switched to a no. Senator Brown, just 6 days after E-mailing a confirmation that she supported our freedom of choice bill, was the no vote that killed us. If this upsets you (and it should!), you need to E-mail or call Senator Brown and Senator Metsger as well as the rest of that motley Big Brother crew down in Salem and tell them what you think. See Network Operations Center Designs Best Practices Resume
for full voting details. And don't forget to give the Governor a piece of your mind, for all the good that will do. Unlike before, you needn't be kind. These people are not our friends. They will never be our friends. So long as we do nothing to stop them from being re-elected, we will continue to have problems with liars and natzicrats.

Helmet Law Reform - SB583 - Our bill will seek to allow motorcycle operators and passengers 21 and older the choice of whether to wear a helmet.

STATUS:

Moved out of the Senate Transportation Committee on 3/3/99 with no amendments and a "do pass" recommendation. Click HERE for details. Please thank Senator George and Senator Hannon for doing a great job lambasting our Opponents for providing misleading and in some cases out-and-out false testimony to the Committee! Also, please thank Senator Ferrioli for taking the Oregon State Police to task for their years of using the helmet law to harass Motorcyclists who attend our Fossil event. And of course a special thank you goes to Chair Senator Shannon who did a wonderful job for us! Once again, she gets the Easyrider MVP Legislator A+ award. You may also thank Senators Dukes and Castillo who left the hearing before the vote, presumably because they didn't want to record a "no" vote against us. This was a gracious move on their part and we should show our appreciation for it. As expected, Senator Yih voted against us. This is surprising to me since Ms. Yih came to America from Shanghai, China, ostensibly to be free from Government interference in her life.
At our request, SB583 was amended from 16 to 21 years of age. There are reasons for this but I am not at liberty to post them here. Basically, this maneuver was required to ensure enough support in the Senate for the bill to pass and to garner more support in the House and with the Governor.
Passed in the Senate on 4/6/99 on a vote of 17-13!
Killed in Committee on a 5-5 vote. Voting for us: Krummel, Lokan, Wells, Kropf and Chairman Montgomery. Voting against us: Hill, Taylor, Devlin, Walker and Vice-Chair Lehman. The Morning of the vote, all 10 Members of the committee received a letter from Dr. Kitzhaber (not Governor Kitzhaber) which stated the same social burden, insurance increases and you'll be falling over dead Bikers lies that the OHPI essentially debunked. The Governor has become a lot more brazen during his final term of office and is now actively lobbying against us and is not terribly concerned about the truthfulness of the "information" he is spewing out when doing so. In a State with a population of roughly 5 million people, for two legislative sessions in a row, one person has killed our freedom bill. Hopefully, this outrage will motivate more Bikers into getting involved in election campaigns so that we can get some of these birdbrains out of the Legislature! Click HERE to read my rebuttal letter to the Governor. E-mail Governor@gov.state.or.us to send yours.

House version of Helmet Law Reform - HB2694

STATUS: Assigned to Transportation. Hearing will be held at our request.

Handlebar Height - HB2613 - We will seek to eliminate all regulation of handlebar height on motorcycles. This is the "new" harassment tool of choice for police agencies.

STATUS:

Moved out of the House Transportation Committee 2/22/99 with a unanimous "do pass" recommendation. Click HERE for details. Please thank Representatives Montgomery, Taylor, Lokan, Hill, Krummel, Wells, Kropf and Walker for their "yes" vote. And please give a special thanks to Rep Mike Lehman for his "do pass" motion!
The full House vote on 2/26/99 passed unanimously, with one Rep. excused! Rep. Jeff Kropf did a great job carrying our bill and graciously endured some good natured kidding from his peers as a result of his leather attire and Terminator impersonation! Rep. Carl Wilson also spoke for us on the floor. Please thank each and every Representative for their "yes" vote and please give a special thanks and well done to Rep. Kropf and Wilson!
Moved out of the Senate Transportation Committee 3/15/99 with a unanimous "do pass" recommendation. The Oregon State Police Rep. (who was testifying "on his own behalf and not for the OSP") tried out some new material after being giggled out of the House side hearing 3 weeks ago. All I can say is that these guys must really enjoy being laughed at because the "facts" that they quoted we so comical that even Senator Castillo almost had Pepsi shooting out of her nose. The real kicker was when one of the Riders who received a ticket while operating a 100% legal motorcycle was told by the Eugene City Police Officer who stopped him that he was receiving the ticket for bad posture! Anyone needing proof that the handlebar law's sole reason for being is to harass Bikers was convinced after that. Please be sure to thank Senator Hannon for really understanding the issues and for holding the OSP Rep's feet to the fire. And again, thanks to Chair Shannon and Senator George for another super job well done. Also, please thank Senator's Casillo, Dukes and Yih for their "yes" vote on the do pass motion.
The Senate vote for this bill was unanimous!. Please send thanks to each Senator for their vote.
Governor Kitzhaber signed this bill into law on 5/3/99. It will go into effect 90 days (10/22/99) after the Legislature adjourns for the session. As a practical matter, it is unlikely that anyone will be cited for a handlebar violation during the interim inasmuch as a Police harassment defense would probably be very effective. Anyone having any problems with handlebar height stops should contact an AIM Attorney.
8/26/99 UPDATE!!! In fact, Police harassment of Motorcyclists continues! A Brookings Couple with no affiliation to any motorcycle club has been stopped, ticketed and convicted of a handlebar height violation. The Judge, who apparently thinks he knows more about motorcycle safety than the legions of people who testified in favor of repealing this law, lectured the "Violator" on how unsafe his motorcycle was and what a "burden to Society" he is. At this point, it is questionable whether the motorcycle in question is even in violation of the old law, which the Legislature voted unanimously to repeal and which Governor Kitzhaber signed into law. The Legislative intent is clear. Unfortunately, Police and Judicial prejudice and harassment continues... I will post a picture of the errant motorcycle when I receive it.

Health Insurance Protection - HB3074 - Motorcyclists have lobbied for and won protection against discrimination in health care at the federal level (TEA-21). This bill would place specific language in Oregon law to back that up. Assigned to the House Business and Consumer Affairs Committee.

BikePAC decided to kill this bill in order to focus on other legislation.

Finding Stuff

Click HERE to do your own gopher search. You may also use THIS search engine to look at specific bills. Click HERE to view the history for all 1999 Senate bills. Click HERE to view the history for all 1999 House bills. Click HERE for House and Senate Committee hearing schedules. Click HERE for Senate third reading notices. Click HERE for House third reading notices.

Click to have a look at the US Constitution. I include it here because I don't think you'll see anything in it that promotes the desirability of Government making personal safety choices for it's citizens....or anything that takes away a citizen's God given right to make these decisions for him/herself. Click HERE to look at the Oregon State Constitution. You won't see anything about Government interference in personal choice liberties here either.

Click HERE to see how your elected officials voted.

* * * Disclaimer * * *

Please note that this is a *PERSONAL* home page. While it is true that I belong to several Motorcyclist Rights Organizations, nothing written in these pages has been authorized or sponsored by those or any other groups or organizations. The comments written here express my opinions and not the opinions of any other person or organization.

There is something fundamentally un-American about people who have never even been on a motorcycle having the authority to dictate to experienced Riders what they must do to be safe.

Nothing scares me more than someone who knows, with certainty, what is right for me.

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Need more Info????

For info about joining BikePAC of Oregon contact: Easyrider, Executive Director of BikePAC

For info about joining ABATE of Oregon E-mail abate@qcsn.com

ABATE sponsored status updates are available on their Legislative Hotline, at 972-3434
Out of Portland area, 1-888-UR1-bike