The trip to Washington D.C. for Bikers inside the Beltway sponsored by the Motorcycle Riders Foundation was a success. There were approximately 75 bikers that rode to D.C. from all over the country. We're hoping for this to be a annual event each year with more and more bikers each year.

 

 

We attended the rally on Friday May 14th and met with Jeff Hennie Vice-President of Government Relations for the MRF. Jeff provided information that we gave to our legislators concerning biker rights issues. The main issue we talked about was to ask Congress to preserve funding of Motorcycle Awareness and Education Programs through the 2010 grants and to celebrate House Resolution 269 declaring May as Motorcycle Awareness month. The previous 2010  bill expires in September of 2009. One of the main items in this bill is that Congress cannot withhold funding by forcing the states to have an all rider helmet law in order to receive these grants.

After a few speeches our little group headed out to visit with the representatives from South Carolina. We had an appointment with Representative Henry Brown from District 1, Congressman Brown was the main rep we wanted to meet with since he's on the House Transportation Committee. We were welcomed with open arms in his office where we went over the various issues. We also filled him in on the Myrtle Beach happenings and he was appalled that the city council would do such things.At the end of the meeting we took pictures with Henry. Ryan Bowley who is his legislative director also took some pictures and Congressman Brown is going to autograph it and send it to each one of us.

After visiting with Congressman Brown we went to Joe Wilson's office and talked to Matt Daack who is on Joe's staff and a Air Force Congressional Fellow. We didn't get to meet with Joe as the session had just started but we had an excellent discussion with Matt. From here we went to Gresham Barrett's office and spoke with Jeremy Winkler, legislative assistant for Gresham. Congressman Barrett is also running for governor in the next election. We had met with Jeremy a couple of years ago and he remembered us from that visit.

The House members reside in the Cannon building and we wanted to talk to Senators Jim Demint and Lindsey Graham. The Senate members are located in the Russell building which is about a quarter mile away. If you ever get to Washington be prepared to walk. We stopped by Demint's office and dropped off our folder because he was in a meeting and so was his legislative assistant. Next we went into Lindsey Graham's office and met with Colin Allen, Lindsey's legislative assistant. Lindsey at the time was doing an interview with FOX News and we watched him on the TV they had in the vestibule. Right after that interview he was again interviewed by MSNBC. These interviews were dealing with Nancy Pelosi and what she knew about the CIA interrogations. Needless to say Lindsey's a busy man. Colin was very receptive and he also remembered us from our last visit.

After this trek we all decided that while we're here we might as well go see the Wall. The Vietnam Memorial is a moving experience and I suggest if you haven't seen it you need to go.