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A Will County A.B.A.T.E. chapter member along with 7 members from other chapters spent the week of April 3rd in Washington DC. They met with 13 Illinois Congressmen and 2 Illinois Senators along with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and NHTSA Director Strickland. Jeff Hennie, Vice President of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation also joined in several of the meetings.

Our member delegation gave everyone they met with our "Wish List" but to save time they actually hit on two subjects that was of concern to all riders. It was asked that the Mandatory Roadside Motorcycle Checkpoints be fully defunded. Our delegates also asked our officials in Washington to support the Kids "Just Want to Ride" Act which would exempt items that are not in danger of being ingested by America's youth. Last year the CSPC banned the sale of all youth motorcycles, ATV's and all associated equipment because the small vehicles contained too much lead in certain parts of the machines. This would also affect larger machines because some of the parts are interchangeable.

Our representatives from A.B.A.T.E. were very well received by everyone that they met with. Some called our team refreshing to Washington and asked why we weren't wearing our "leathers"; and further, "if we rode there". Our A.B.A.T.E. representatives were given a tour of the Capitol and taken to lunch in the Capitol dining room.

By the time our team left DC most everyone that they had met with had signed on to these 2 bills along with some from other States.

Another first for A.B.A.T.E. was the meeting with Secretary of Transportation LaHood since he was appointed to his office. That meeting went extremely well.