NYCkayaker Keeping abreast of Boating Safety Legislation

[bonnie13 at earthlink.net]

So, remember how when the new NYS lifejacket law was announced, at least one person (Rob B?) asked why it that the first most of us heard about it was via the press release that someone posted here, rather than earlier in the legislative process? I was asked this afternoon back-channel by another list member whether anyone had ever been able to answer that.

Well, personally, I do think that law is probably one of the more sensible things to come out of Albany this year, but I did think that "we should have known about this before it was a done deal" was a very good point. Been a bit swamped at work so totally forgot to do any followup, but when I got that reminder today, I decided to come home & see what I could find out.

Google didn't quite answer the question, but I did find that the US Power Squadron site has a section called "Must Know Legislative News", where they post information about pending legislation. Best find was their mid-year report, done in June, which listed nice clear synopses of all such legislation by state in alphabetical order & included contacts. 2nd one down here, "Midyear RBSC Report" 

http://www.usps.org/national/govprcom/Hot_leg_news_f.htm

Seems like that might be a good place for people who're interested in what's in the boating-safety pipeline to find information without having to wade through a ton of other stuff.