Introduced by Sen. Luis P. Crisostimo, Ind.-Saipan, Senate Bill 17-37 as amended by the House of Representatives now goes to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial who is expected to sign it.
The bill allows hotels to increase the number of its smoking rooms from 20 percent as required by the Smoke-Free Act of 2008 to 30 percent, including adjacent balconies.
According to its proponents, the bill takes into consideration the concerns of hotels whose guests include smokers.
The Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands believes that the passage of the bill is very critical to the struggling tourism industry.
S.B. 17-37 is the “compromise” version of the original legislation which would have exempted restaurants and bars from the smoking ban.
A similar measure, House Bill 17-70, was introduced by Rep. Froilan C. Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, and would have allowed hotels to increase the number of its smoking rooms to 80 percent while still prohibiting smoking in restaurants.
It took a while for the House to pass the “compromise version” due to the bill’s “technical errors” which were addressed by the House Committee on Commerce and Tourism chaired by Rep. Edmund S. Villagomez, Covenant -Saipan.
The committee met on Wednesday and came up with a report clarifying the ambiguities in the Senate version of the bill.
According to the committee report, “by increasing the amount of smoking rooms in hotels and motels by 10 percent, the commonwealth’s tourism industry may greatly benefit and in return will assist our ailing economy.”
The designated smoking rooms “must be contiguous, and smoke from these rooms shall not infiltrate areas where smoking is prohibited,” the committee report stated.
Health advocates led by former Rep. Tina Sablan deplored the bill and described it as“a step backward” from the effort to maintain a healthy environment for everyone.
