The American Motorcyclist Association honored 59 U.S. lawmakers for their support of motorcyclists in the recently concluded 112th Congress.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), and former Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) in particular were honored with “Hero” awards by the AMA Government Relations Department for their efforts during the congressional session running from Jan. 3, 2011 to Jan. 3, 2013.

Klobuchar and Rehberg played important roles in getting youth dirt bikes and ATVs exempted from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act “lead ban”. Bartlett helped work out a compromise over the expansion of a U.S. Marine base that could have encroached on the popular Johnson Valley off-highway riding area in California. Sensenbrenner introduced legislation banning federal funding for motorcycle-only checkpoints. Continue Reading »

Representatives from off-highway riding groups testified before a congressional subcommittee in support of a bill that would open 43 million acres for recreational riding.

The groups support H.R. 1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011, which would free land deemed not suitable for wilderness designation, opening them up for off-highway riding. The land includes seven million acres designated as Wilderness Study Areas by the Bureau of Land Management and 36 million acres designated as Inventoried Roadless Areas by the  National Forest System.

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