Congress Heeds the Need For Speed

CONGRESS HEEDS THE NEED FOR SPEED

ROUNDUP

YOU SAY YOU HAVE SEEN the enemy, and he holds a radar gun? Rather than preparing for a future of unlimited speeding tickets, try envisioning life without a National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL).

Thanks to a successfully lopsided vote of 419-7, the House of Representatives passed the National Highway System Act (House Resolution 2274), which repeals the 55mph NMSL and empowers states to determine speed limits. Designed to prioritize federal funding for interstate highway projects, the act also prevents states without helmet laws from being sanctioned.

Despite the introduction of several unsuccessful amendments, most of which were proposed by opponents of the NMSL and helmet-law repeals, the act passed in its entirety, said National Motorists Association (NMA) Director of Communications Bob Morrow.

The helmet-law repeals were of particular interest to California AB AT E official L e r oy Dwight. “It will take away the federal government’s blackmail tactics, and then we can go to the state legislature to get a bill that will take those helmets off our heads,” he said.

Because the bill had already received the Senate’s stamp of approval, its success in the House calls for a Congressional conference committee to prepare a version of the bill agreeable to both legislative bodies. “This is where the process fell apart last year,”

said NMA President Jim Baxter. “If they can agree, a conference committee bill goes before both houses where it cannot be amended. If it passes both the House and Senate, it’s sent to the president.”

Although Baxter and Morrow remain optimistic that Congress will pass the act in its entirety, they concede that some of the conference committee’s compromises could affect the NMSL and helmet law sanction repeals. Said Morrow, “We’re not going to count our chickens yet. but 1 believe we’ll sec some sort of NMSL repeal.”

Wendy F. Black

SUPER THREE SET TO GO?

Persistent rumors circulating in Britain point to the launch of Triumph's much~rumored next-generation 900cc Superbike at the Isle of Man next year. Not in the races-it will be awhile before the fuel-injected Triple is track-ready-but in street-legal form. Word is that Triumph will then gear up for fall production, not only to ensure available stock for all of the 33 countries in which it sells bikes, but also to homologate the machine for Superbike racing in good time for the start of the 1997 season.