It's 12:05 A.M. on Wednesday, November 25.

The Pa. House of Representatives failed to consider Representative Teresa Brown's motorcycle helmet repeal amendment before its adjournment of the 1995-1996 Session at 11:00 P.M. on Tuesday, November 24.

I cannot adequately express the extent of my personal disappointment with this fact or how badly I feel for all of you who have worked so hard to accomplish our collective mission.

I offer to you the following observations:

WHAT HAPPENED

As part of its daily procedural routine, the House leadership determined which bills would be voted and which bills would not be voted on Tuesday's session. Senate Bill 497 which would have provided for a Youth Hunter and Angler Conservation Fund was marked to "run" as were some 20 amendments to the bill including Teresa Brown's repeal amendment.

After the previous night's marathon session which ended at approximately 2:30 A.M., the House reconvened at 5:00 P.M. an Tuesday. The House leadership then determined which bills would be voted and which would not be voted.In the interim, it was resolved that the governor's gas tax proposal was dead and, as a consequence, that no Title 75 (Transportation) bills would move. The House additionally imposed a rule which would force adjournment by 11:00 P.M. on Tuesday. There were too many issues and too little time. We, along with many other special interest groups and issues of great importance to Pennsylvania citizens, got put one the "back burner" and ultimately would not get a vote on our issue..

THE SYSTEM WORKS

In the larger scheme of things, I won't belabor why I think the system works. If the same rules were applied to a bill or amendment which would have reinstated mandatory helmet use, I am confident you would have been pleased with the result. It is, by design, a slow painful process.

WORST THING WE CAN DO

To attempt to assign blame to any legislator, including Representative Geist, for the result. You can blame me...although I exercised every tool of my profession to attempt to effect a different outcome.

NEXT STEP

Representatives Teresa Brown and Dan Surra and I arrived at a "hard" head count of 130 plus of House members who would have voted for Teresa's amendment. We will make known to you the results of that count. Our immediate mission is to :

• 1) Preserve each vote in support of Rep. Brown's amendment
• 2] To quickly establish our support among the newly elected members of the House and Senate
• 3] To focus on enactment of our helmet repeal initiative prior to or in conjunction with enactment of the State's 1997-1998 Budget in June of 1997.

Despite this momentary setback, we have made monumental progress.

Despite our frustrations, we've got the votes. All we need is the opportunity for those votes to be cast. Our time will come...sooner rather than later. Hang in there . If it is any consolation, ABATE was right up there with some of the most powerful lobbying forces in the Commonwealth in competition for a floor vote. They got screwed. We got screwed. We will prevail with your collective focus and patience. We are not close...we are there. Please, please don't give up. Our time has come.

Bruce