OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, has introduced a bill called the Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act. The Bill, H.R. 1861, would prohibit the Department of Transportation Department from providing funds to state and local authorities for motorcycle-only checkpoints.
The Bill currently has 13 Republican co-sponsors and is being considered by House the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. It must be approved by that committee before it is considered by the full House.
About the proposed bill Sensenbrenner said, “Current law states that highway safety plans must prevent accidents and reduce injuries. The Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act would require highway safety plans to include programs that prevent accidents in order to reduce injuries and deaths resulting from accidents involving motor vehicles and motorcycles. This small change will make a significant impact because it highlights that preventing accidents is the best way to save motorcyclists’ lives,”
Over-Criminalization Task Force
Sensenbrenner introduced the checkpoint bill on May 7th, the same day he was named co-chair, with Virginia Democrat Bobby Scott, of the bi-partisan Over-Criminalization Task Force.
In a formal statement about the task force, Sensenbrenner said:
“As former chairman and long-serving member of the Judiciary Committee, I’ve seen first-hand just how muddled the criminal code is. It’s time to scrub it clean. The Over-Criminalization Task Force will review federal laws in Title 18, and laws outside of Title 18 that have not gone through the Judiciary Committee, to modernize our criminal code.
“In addition, I reintroduced the Criminal Code Modernization and Simplification Act today, which would reform Title 18 of the U.S. Code, reduce the existing criminal code by more than one-third and update the code to make it more comprehensible.”
Bête Noire
The checkpoint bill probably has a slim chance of passage by the complete House at least partly because Sensenbrenner is considered a rude radical by many liberal and moderate politicians.
He was particularly vilified after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported a remark me made about Michelle Obama and her campaign for a healthy diet and exercise. “She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself,” Sensenbrenner said. He later called the First Lady to apologize.
