Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., has introduced a bill that would wipe out the last smoking refuges in and around federal buildings. The measure would ban smoking in an around all properties owned or leased by the federal government and close officially designated smoking areas, The
Washington Post’s Federal Eye blog reported.
“Exposure to secondhand smoke is a serious health issue that drives up health care costs for all of us,” Davis said. “Federal workers should be able to work in a healthy, smoke-free environment.”
President Bill Clinton banned smoking in most federal offices by executive order in 1997. The order allowed for the establishment of smoking rooms.
At the end of the George W. Bush administration, the General Services Administration banned smoking in courtyards of federal buildings, the Post reported.
Attempts similar to Davis’s failed in 2008 and 2009.
Davis’s proposal would not apply to Congress or the White House. In other words, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, could still catch a smoke on the balcony, and President Barack Obama also could light up, if he happened to backslide and resume smoking, the Post reported.