Alabama senator delays her anti-smoking bill

(AP:MONTGOMERY, Ala.) A state senator stopped the Senate from taking a final vote on her anti-smoking bill Thursday after it was gutted by amendments during a lively debate that touched on everything from personal liberties to office sex.

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, had proposed a bill to restrict smoking in most public places, including bars, restaurants, retail businesses and public transportation. But the Senate amended it to allow smoking in bars, the bar sections of restaurants, dog tracks and gambling halls.

Figures told senators they had gutted her bill. "I don't want to pass this bill in its present state," she said.

At her request, the Senate agreed to carry over the bill, which will allow Figures to try again later.

Figures got a similar bill passed by the Senate last year, but it died in the House.

She expressed surprise at the opposition she encountered Thursday and lashed out at the Senate.

"I'm sick and tired of this," she told senators.

Sen. Charles Bishop, R-Jasper, tried to get the Senate to amend the bill to allow business owners to smoke in their private offices, but Figures succeeded in blocking that amendment.

"When it gets to where someone can't smoke or have sex in their private office, we're in bad shape," Bishop said.

Bishop later said his remark was meant as humor.

"Maybe it was the wrong kind of humor. I apologize," he told the Senate.

Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Daphne, offered an amendment to allow smoking in businesses where only the owners or their family members are present. Pittman called it a "personal liberty issue," but the Senate defeated his amendment.

"I think decisions, even bad ones, need to be left up to the family," he told Figures.

"I wonder why we have all these child protection laws then senator?" she responded.

Proponents of the bill, including the American Cancer Society and the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Alabama, have staged several large rallies at the Statehouse to demonstrate support. Figures said the bill has caused more ordinary citizens to visit the Legislature than any bill she can remember, and she won't give up.

"I am keeping hope alive," she said.



Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

< Back to News Index