If you had a Senator like this (this is a link, Glenn) wouldn't you feel proud too? I mean, he doesn't waste his time with things like the war in Iraq or the war in Lebanon or lowering our taxes or making sure Americans have affordable gas by allowing off-shore drilling. No, he spends his time making sure no one has cheap cigarettes:
Lautenberg, who co-sponsored the law banning smoking on airlines, this week urged the Senate's food service managers to stop selling cigars, cigarettes and other tobacco products in retail operations in the Senate complex.Isn't it interesting how Congress is exempt from these laws? Ah, the life of privilege that our lawmakers experience. It must be nice.
Stocking tobacco "undermines our efforts to curb youth tobacco use" and sends the wrong message to schoolchildren who visit the Senate, he said in a letter.
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The Senate effectively provides tourists and local residents with an economic incentive to buy cigarettes on their visits, he argued, because they are sold without sales or excise taxes. Off Capitol Hill, the District and Maryland impose excise taxes of $1 per pack, plus sales taxes.
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Last month, the House banned smoking in all food service areas, interior courtyards and other public areas of the House office buildings, including within 25 feet of any public entrance. The exceptions are two designated smoking areas, a room adjacent to the food court in the Longworth building and a room across the hall from a carryout in the Cannon building.
Lawmakers, however, can still light up in the Speaker's Lobby, a room just off the House chamber that is closed to the public. That room, like other parts of the Capitol complex, is not subject to Washington's new ban on smoking in most indoor workplaces and restaurants.
