There is an obscure but important piece of legislation that impacts our sport under consideration in Washington. The HIPAA Recreational Injury Technical Correction Act is currently gaining support in both the Senate (S.616) and House of Representatives (H.R.1076). Fortunately this legislation is gaining support. This legislation closes a loophole in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) that would allow insurers to deny coverage for injuries solely because the injury resulted from participation in a legal mode of transportation or recreational activity; i.e. motorcycling. Motorcycle rights organizations like the Motorcycle Riders Foundation and ABATE have worked hard to gather support for the bills. Recently their efforts have begun to bear fruit with 15 Representatives and 3 Senators signing on to co-sponsor the bill this year. This brings to 111 the current number of co-sponsors of the House bill and 8 in the Senate. The 18 new co-sponsors are: Rep. Mike Rogers [MI] Rep. Mike Ross [AR] Rep. Robert Wexler [FL] Rep. Anna Eshoo [CA] Rep. Mike McIntyre [NC] Rep. Ralph Hall [TX] Rep. John McHugh [NY] Rep. Thelma Drake [VA] Rep. Sam Graves [MO] Rep. Charles Wilson [OH] Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr. [GA] Rep. Steven LaTourette [OH] Rep. John Abney Culberson [TX] Rep. Henry C. Johnson Jr. [GA] Rep. Ray LaHood [IL] Senator Patty Murray [WA] Senator Norm Coleman [MN] Senator Amy Klobuchar [MN] Let's hope the momentum continues. Do your part by finding out if your elected representatives have signed on in support of the bill. If they have, thank them for their support. If they have not, encourage them to do so.

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