September 2024 Legislative Liaison Report

Local items of interest

Local items of interest 

It is election season and I encourage you to talk to your representatives and when they ask for your vote, see where they stand on issues that are important to you and remember how they treated us as a motorcycle community also. Speaking of the way they treated us, if anybody is represented by Sen Murdock from District 27 up in the NE part of the state, I would be calling him and asking why he gutted our anti profiling bill this last session.

On April 11th 2024 Representative May was removed as author and Senator Murdock was replaced as the author and at that time he removed all language relating to motorcycle profiling and replaced it with language for his bill.  We have attempted to reach out to Senator Murdock and nobody will even answer his phone at the capitol.  When I did speak to one of the other Senators he said that this sometimes happens when a bill is effectively dead, they will use it for something else.  This is one more reason that we need to be talking with our senators and representatives, so that our concerns are being paid attention to.

There was a bill passed that went into effect September 1st that requires sellers of vehicles to report the sale within 48 hours to an online portal. Customers still get a paper tag at dealerships but that tag is only valid for 10 days.

Once the seller reports the sale, Service Oklahoma sends a temporary metal plate with a decal saying ‘temporary' to the buyer of the car. The buyer has 10 days to put the metal plate on the vehicle.  After the temporary tag is in place and pre-registration is complete, the buyer is responsible for completing the full registration and still must pay for the tag, title, and tax within two months of purchase.  supposedly this is going to decrease the amount of unregistered vehicles on the road, at least that is how they are selling it.  Personally, I don't know if it will change anything.

We are already working on next session's bills, right now we have Representative Fugate agreeing to author the Right of Way bill, however we will have to wait and see if he gets reelected or not..

Anti Profiling Bill and Lane filtering bills will still need authors but right now with the elections coming up, it is really difficult to know who will still be in office.  Like I said before, we need to be looking at how these legislators treated us and vote accordingly.  I have said it a million times, they work for us.  they may have forgotten this, but it's our job to remind them.

If there are any other items that you would like to see addressed please either talk to me after the meeting or email me and I would be happy to discuss them.

The next MEAL will be held February 20th 2025 starting at 9am, we will be on the 2nd floor again, this gives you almost a full year to start getting people together to show up in force.  We get things accomplished when we show up in force, this year we had 57 next year let's try for 157. The only way we are going to get these bills passed is showing up in numbers and talking to these legislators.  They should know what bills we are pushing well before we walk into their office. If they don't know about them, then we as a body have failed, and I know that won't happen because if there is one thing us bikers are good at, it's being heard.

Midsouth MILE

Will be held October 25-27 at the Embassy Suites in Hot Springs AR.  There will be seminars from the MRF, NCOM, and Sons of Silence Slider, who is an exceptional speaker, along with other workshops.  for more information you can go to midsouthmile.org.  I would encourage you to take the weekend and ride over.  Not only is it a great ride, but you might just learn something new.

NCOM convention 

The next NCOM convention will be held on Mothers Day weekend 2025 in Baton Rouge LA.  They will be posting that information on www.onabike.comas the dates get closer and I will pass that along.

MRF Meeting of the Minds

This will be held September 25th in St. Louis MO at the Renaissance St. Louis Airport Hotel,  there will be workshops and informational seminars on legislation at the federal level along with training on how to deal with the state legislators.  more information and registration can be found at www.mrf.org/events

Federal items

MPP SURVEY let's make sure and take this once again, you can either go to www.motorcycleprofilingproject.com or you can scan the QR code that is on most of the tables.  it doesn't matter if you have taken it before or not, do it again - have every family member take the survey.  Tell all your friends to take it.  The MRF uses these numbers when they talk to the legislators in our nation's capital.  Let's give them lots of numbers

S.2090, the “Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act.” The bill would amend the Clean Air Act to prevent a ban on the sale of internal combustion engines, effectively trumping any state law that outlaws their sale. S. 2090 is the Senate’s version of H.R. 1435, which recently passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

While the House version of the bill is moving, the Senate version of the bill still needs more cosponsors. Will you ask your two Senators to protect the internal combustion engine?

The REPAIR Act H.R. 906 ensures that vehicle owners or repair shops are not denied access to the information, software or tools needed to work on vehicles. The proposed law also establishes rules regarding vehicle data access. This commonsense law will help preserve consumer choice and a fair marketplace.

There is a link at www.mrf.org/federal-legislative-issues/ that can assist you with sending a preformed message.  it really takes about 3-4 minutes unless you want to add any additional comments.  

Upcoming Events 2024

Sept  26-29   MRF convention   St. Louis, MO

Oct  25-27  MidSouth MILE  Hot Springs AR

Nov 11th. Veterans Day Ceremony   OKC Capitol

MHL&R 

Boats 

Sooner State A.B.A.T.E 

First Chair