Awhile back I wrote a short bit about the American Motorcycle Associations (AMA) attempt to get a bipartisan bill passed in the House of Representatives. Measure S. 423 was written in response to a Federal Loophole that allows companies to deny health care to their employees if they’re hurt while riding a recreational vehicles. Obviously for those of us who ride motorcycles this is a potentially financially fatal concept. At its core it strikes me that once again society is looking down at folks who ride cycles simply because of their rebellious image. So again while I don’t normally advocate or push political issues on people, I wrote a bit about it and then headed over to the AMA’s website where you could write to your local Representative in hopes of swaying the vote. Well, when I got home tonight I was shocked to find one of the more bland and substanceless bulk emails from my local Representative Jane Harman.

Dear Dylan,

Thank you for contacting me about S. 423, the HIPAA Recreational Injury Technical Correction Act. I appreciate hearing from you. However, the 108th Congress has come to a close. Since legislation cannot be carried over from one Congress to the next, the House will not process S. 423 unless it is reintroduced in the 109th Congress. Once again, thank you for sharing your views with me. If I may be of any further assistance on this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

JANE HARMAN
Member of Congress
http://www.house.gov/harman

How worthless is this?… The least she - or whomever the folks in her office who wrote the bulk email - could have written, ‘hey I understand your concern, bla bla bla, I’ll try my best to work this out on behalf of my constituents who feel as you do’ or something to that effect. Instead all this email does is leave me with the feeling that Jane Harman could careless about the motorcycle riding public or anyone who voted for her for that matter.