Continuing efforts to repair the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, stopping a program of motorcycle-ony checkpoints, and continuing a ban on NHTSA lobbying of states on legislative issues were among the priorities established recently by the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) at its annual Meeting of the Minds.
The MRF is a nationally oriented motorcycle rights organization and this year's Meeting of the Minds was held in Peoria, IL, Sep. 23-26. In a follow-up release, the MRF listed the following issues it will be working for and monitoring.
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Stop NHTSA checkpoint grant program
- Increase 2010 motorcycle grant funding
- Maintain Motorcycle Advisory Council (MAC)
- Continue NHTSA to States lobby ban
- Monitor Federal crash causation study
- Monitor MSF alternate naturalistic study
- Promote US House Resolution 1498
- Monitor all motorcycle specific efforts by EPA, sound and emissions
- Advocate for good distracted driving laws
- Promote and pass Right to Repair
- Work with the USDOT to update Federal definition of a motorcycle
- Stop motorcycle and motorcyclists discriminatory legislation.
- Work with Consumer Product Safety Commission to overturn bike ban
- Participate in European Union and United Nations activity
HIPAA is a law passed in 1996 in which it was specifically stated that an insurance company cannot deny benefits to a customer because they were injured while riding a motorcycle. In an act of administrative absurdity, the government agencies charged with implementing that law wrote regulations that specifically allow insurance companies to do so. An effort to repair the HIPAA legislation has been underway every since.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been offering grant money to states to set up motorcycle-only checkpoints. Eleven Congressmen sent a letter to Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood calling for the program to be suspended until it is demonstrated that it would be an effective use of the funds, but NHTSA has proceeded with implementation.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has drafted H.R. 1498 supporting efforts to retain a ban on NHTSA's ability to lobby State Legislators using Taxpayer Federal dollars through the "Motorcycle Law Enforcement Demonstration" grant program. The ban prohibits the agency from, among other things, pushing the states to institute helmet laws.
We will be reporting on various of these issues more fully in the future.
Comments
Don't EVEN get me started!!!
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.”
Patrick Henry
MSF does great work.
Do You Hate Fascism, But Love Hitler?
If so, then like many members of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) you'll have no problems panning the USA Patriot Act while at the same time praising F. James (a.k.a. "Fat Jim") Sensenbrenner Jr. R-WI, the alleged "pre-9/11 silver spooner turned post-9/11 war profiteer" who sponsored (but in our opinion had neither the time nor mental capacity to author) the USA Patriot Act which, coupled with the SCOTUS Citizens United vs. FEC decision, ended democracy in the United States and will doubtless be noted by future historians as the final victory of greed and lust for power over, and the consequent beginning of the end of, the great experiment that was America:
http://ironboltbruce.com
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