Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2726) to amend title 49, United States Code, to prohibit smoking on Amtrak trains.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 2726

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019''. SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON SMOKING ON AMTRAK TRAINS.

(a) In General.--Chapter 243 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: ``Sec. 24323. Prohibition on smoking on Amtrak trains

``(a) Prohibition.--Beginning on the date of enactment of the Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019, Amtrak shall prohibit smoking on board Amtrak trains.

``(b) Electronic Cigarettes.--

``(1) Inclusion.--The use of an electronic cigarette shall be treated as smoking for purposes of this section.

``(2) Electronic cigarette defined.--In this section, the term `electronic cigarette' means a device that delivers nicotine or other substances to a user of the device in the form of a vapor that is inhaled to simulate the experience of smoking.''.

(b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 243 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: ``24323. Prohibition on smoking on Amtrak trains.''.

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Ms. NORTON. 2726.

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Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today, I rise to ask that the House pass my bill, the Banning Smoking on Amtrak Act of 2019. I thank my friends, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio and Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chair Daniel Lipinski, for marking up my bill in committee and allowing it to move forward to the full House.

My bill would codify Amtrak's internal policy prohibiting smoking, including smoking electronic cigarettes, on trains, which, in light of all the evidence of harm, should be codified.

This bill is modeled on a bill I got enacted while in the minority as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 that clarified that the smoking ban on airplanes includes electronic cigarettes. This bill is not only an outgrowth of my desire to ensure healthy environments on all the Nation's transportation modes, which I strive to carry out as chair of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, but importantly, it is also the result of the advocacy of an 11-year old child who was concerned to see electronic cigarette smoking on an Amtrak train.

Although Amtrak should be commended for implementing its own internal policy banning smoking on trains in 1993, that policy could always be repealed. My bill would make the ban a matter of federal law and put Congress on record in support of protecting passengers from secondhand smoke, as it has done in banning e-cigarettes on airplanes.

Smoking bans have been a critical tool in protecting people from the effects of secondhand smoke because it is known to increase the risk of serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, such as coronary heart disease, lung cancer, and emphysema, among others.

The World Health Organization considers the tobacco epidemic to be one of the largest public health threats in the world, killing more than 7 million people a year. While more than 6 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, around 890,000, close to a million, nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke die as a result every year.

Under my bill, smoking would be banned on Amtrak trains in the same manner as airline travel. According to the WHO--this is important to note--there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Even short-term exposure can potentially increase the risk of heart attacks. All the more reason to ask the House to support my bill.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support the bill before them.
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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the remarks of my friend from the other side.

You can see that this is a bipartisan bill, and no wonder. When my friend was in the majority, a similar bill was supported banning smoking. This is as quintessentially a bipartisan bill as one could have in the House, and I very much appreciate the remarks of my friend.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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