By Darrell Fuller

 

NATA monitored nearly 100 bills this session. Only a small number of the nearly 4,000 bills introduced during a session even receive a hearing, let alone become law. Nevertheless, it is very important to closely monitor any bill which may have an impact on NATA members.

 

Each bill starts with a “relating to” clause. This clause limits what kind of issues may be included in a bill. Some bills have fairly narrow relating clauses like, “relating to vehicle color information” (House Bill 539 would require vehicle registrations to include the vehicle’s color). On the other hand, some relating clauses are quite broad, like “relating to motor vehicles”. Broad relating clauses are particularly challenging for lobbyists as someone could introduce a seemingly unrelated amendment to a bill as long as it fits within the relating clause.

 

One example of this during this session was Senator Jackie Dingfelder’s bill on reducing the amount of Copper in brake pads. The original bill, Senate Bill 341’s relating clause is, “relating to motor vehicles”. This bill was eventually amended by deleting all the language related to brake pads and replacing it with new language enhancing fines against motorists who do not yield the right of way on road roundabouts (this is called a “gut and stuff”). While the two issues seem unrelated, both are related to “motor vehicles” so they are both within the bill’s relating clause. Lobbyists must carefully watch bills with broad relating clauses so they aren’t caught off guard when someone introduces an amendment which could impact
their industry.