Much to get done in March

February was a fairly busy month.. Two TMRA 2 meetings, a fish fry and a
veteran's gathering at the hospital in Dallas..

The month of March looks even more so busy.. There is the xcheduled
breakfast meeting in our Capitol in Austin, with the legislators.. The Bills
which have been in committee should be getting ready to hit the floor and
those legislators should be locked in on their support ..Along with the
fellowship of all the other brothers and sisters from around our State, that
meeting with those legislators should be productive and informing..

The DFW Chapter meeting should be lively.. Just coming off the successful
fish fry last month, there should be a lot going on, as we prepare to join
in the parade of our brothers and sisters, making that trip to Austin.. I'm
sure that Elmer McKeegan will chair a good meeting, as he normally does..

The Tarrant County Chapter will be meeting also, this month.. Hopefully
those new officers of the Chapter will be completely on board and ready to
take over.. Like the DFW Chapter, there should be considerable discussion of
the upcoming Legislative visit.. Seems like we just have to stay on top of
what those guys are doing, who represent us in Austin..

Representative Mark Homer has again introduced his Bill requiring MSF
courses for renewal of drivers license with motorcycle endorsements.. He did
dilute it somewhat this year.. This year .. Rep. Homer has stipulated that
only the license holders who are applying for the endorsement for the first
time, be required to take the course.. Even though we'd all benefit from the
MSF course, there should not be legislation requiring it, in the law.. His
own personal interest in one of the MSF schools offering the course, could
be Rep. Homer's motivation for offering his Bill..

Wanna make a nice little ride out of North Texas and the DFW area, then plan
to ride with us, when we go to Austin on the 20th of March.. We'll be
staying at the TravelLodge just off IH 35, in Austin.. Northside.. There
will be good fellowship.. Couldn't be amongst better company and it is a
nice little run down through parts of the Hill Country..

Your Friend in Irving
Bill Walker

 

It has been so far... Below is Sputniks update as of today:

UPDATE 02/09/05

Things are going well for us at the capitol except that with HB 2,
School reform and HB 3, Tax Bill it is getting mighty hard to connect
with the actual legislators right now. They are staying on the Floor
until as late as midnight but we catch who we can before they get there.

Just want to let you know our TV Show is drawing some fantastic response
this session. Calls and Emails are coming in instantly when we finish
the show. Everyone at the capitol is talking about it. A high school
government teacher saw last nights show and asked if we could speak to
her class.
A group of government students were in the capitol today. I was talking
to a man from Kentucky who said he saw the show last night and it was
the greatest thing he had ever seen. During the conversation several of
the students stood waiting and when we finished they all wanted me to
write something to them and autograph it. I told them you got to be
kidding but they said they watch the show and it was great. We are still
hoping to get the show on line in the near future, at least in Texas. It
would really be an asset if several Warriors would do this in their
city. Then we wouldn’t have to put it on line.

Now on to political happenings:

We still haven’t gotten a number for our Insurance Bill.

HB 264
Rep. Escobar has signed on as Co Author of our Bill. Based on the yes
votes received thus far and the ones we have reason to believe will say
yes once we manage to catch up with them we are probably in good shape
with this Bill. The Law Enforcement committee is on line, it is just a
case of scheduling. If we don’t get scheduled by a week from Monday we
will probably be asking for calls so stay tuned for the request. Rep
Vilma Luna is the only one we have not gotten to speak with on
Calendars. We would appreciate CALLS from any riders in the Flour Bluff
area down by Corpus. If she gets a few calls from riders in Flour Bluff
we have Calendars wired now. Come on Gypsys you are very strong in the
Corpus Area so you are bound to know a few people in that town that you
could get to call her office. Call 512-463-0484. Tell them you are from
Flour Bluff and ask for support for HB 264. Call our 800 number and let
us know you called her. PLEASE HELP!
We got an opportunity to get with a few Senators today. My Senator, Mike
Jackson, Dist. 11 said I always support you Sputnik, Senator Gallegos,
Dist. 06 said of course and Senator Lucio, Dist. 27 gave a thumbs up
and said I’m with you. Of course Senator Madla, Dist. 19 is on board
with the Bill. Any pledges of support are good but the best meeting of
the day was when we finally found Senator Hinojosa, Dist. 20 in his
office. We sat down to discuss HB 264 and he said he would carry the
Bill when it came across to the senate. He asked “Is that what you want
to know?” We told him we had hoped he would offer a companion Bill in
the Senate so we could know what committee it would go to and begin work
on the senate committee as soon as possible. His Reply was, “ you want
me to file a companion Bill, I can do that. Whatever you want we’ll do.”
He immediately called in his Legislative Aide and told him to go file
the companion Bill. We thanked him and left the office.
We anticipate either State Affairs or Transportation. In either
committee we already know we will have a majority of the votes now but
State Affairs Chair is Senator Duncan and Transportation Chair is
Senator Todd Staples. Neither are supportive of our issues but if
Senator Wentworth comes on bard it will make all the difference. We
should have an answer from him by next week. He appears to be leaning
our way so keep those cards and faxes going to his office.




HB 514

Rep Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton has signed on as coauthor of our Failure to
yield Bill. We shall begin talking to the members of the Transportation
Committee on this Bill by the middle of next week.

Chair Mike Krusee - V. Chair Larry Phillips
Members Bill Callegari, Carter Casteel, Joe Deshotel, Kino Flores,
Peggy Hamric, Fred Hill and Buddy West. This will be a good committee
for this Bill if Chairman Krusee will just bring the Bill to the Floor.
We shall call later this week for some appointments to begin next week.
We can be reasonably sure we have at least five supporters on this
committee now but we don’t take anything for granted until we hear from
them. Start your cards and faxes going to these Reps. now. Ask them to
support bringing HB 514 out of committee.
That’s it for this round. Please take the actions requested and let us
hear from you once in a while.
Sputnik

 

With all that is going to be happening this month, looks like we'll have our
work cut out for us, on the 21st of March.. Conflict between the HIPPA Act
and the Helmet Bill that we're supporting should be a plus in our favor when
we talk to the legislators..

During the January Legislative Day, the ones that I talked to, were
surprised to learn of that conflict between those two.. I came away with the
impression that they'd support us on both Bills.. Kinda mysterious about how
that was written into law.. huh ?

Your Friend in Irving
Bill Walker