Health advocates, once again, attended the session to make sure that the House would not weaken the anti-smoking law’s provisions.
Through a voice vote, the House referred Senate Bill 17-37 to the House Committee on Commerce and Tourism.
Introduced by Sen. Luis P. Crisostimo, Ind.-Saipan, S.B. 17-37 will allow hotels to increase the number of its smoking rooms from 20 to 30 percent, including the balconies.
Acting Speaker Felicidad T. Ogumoro, Covenant-Saipan, said they will act on the bill this week.
“Whatever amendments that the committee has to work on, we’ll wrap it up for our final action,” she said.
But House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, urged the House leadership not to defer action on the bill which he described as “very simple.”
What appeared to be a technical error, he said, was that the last action taken by the Senate was different from what was stated in the language.
He said instead of again delaying action on the bill the House should address the ambiguity in the language and pass it.
Last Friday was World Cancer Day.
Former Rep. Tina Sablan, speaking in her personal capacity as a concerned citizen, asked the lawmakers: “Why [compared with the rest of the world] is the CNMI moving in the opposite direction?”
She said the CNMI does not have to, as she expressed hope that its leaders don’t make decisions that “move us backwards.”
Other places, she added, are adopting more stringent and more comprehensive policies to reduce tobacco use and exposure to tobacco use.
Sablan said she and other health advocates have been showing up in the House gallery since last week because they want to see how the Legislature will pass the bill that eases the smoking ban.
“We have been there to submit comments and information in the small windows of opportunity that have been afforded to us prior to these sessions, because there hasn’t been a single public hearing on this legislation,” she said.
“We have also been there to witness the Legislature’s deliberations and actions on this bill, given the comments and information that have been submitted on the hazards of tobacco smoke exposure, the toll that tobacco-related illness have had on our community, and the benefits of smoke-free laws, and also given the lack of data to show any negative economic impacts of the CNMI’s smoke-free law since its enactment over a year ago, she added.
