Panel Supports Permanent Smoking Ban on Short Flights
A House committee approved legislation Friday to make permanent a smoking ban on short airline flights after rejecting a temporary ban affecting all domestic flights.
The bill is one of several proposals to make permanent the smoking ban on flights of two hours or less. That prohibition will expire in April.
Friday’s voice vote in the House Public Works and Transportation Committee followed a tie vote on a proposal to extend the temporary smoking ban for two more years and make it cover all domestic flights. A tie defeats an amendment.
Opponents of the smoking ban raised suggestions that liquor, cheap cologne and crying babies could also be banned from flights because they offend some people.
Rep. William F. Clinger Jr. (R-Pa.), who opposed proposals that would affect flights of more than two hours, joked that the committee might vote to “install cheap cologne detectors and put crying babies in the hold.”
Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), who pushed for a permanent smoking ban, said he believes the committee’s 25-25 vote on his proposal to extend the ban temporarily reflects strong lobbying by the tobacco industry. Oberstar said a more far-reaching ban would likely pass the House.
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