Restaurant smoking ban heads to House-Senate negotiating committee

A Senate bill that would prohibit lighting up in any public restaurant in Virginia without a separate, ventilated smoking room is heading to a bipartisan negotiating committee.

That panel will be charged with forging a compromise that can pass both houses.

Both the House of Delegates and Senate yesterday voted to send Senate Bill 1105, sponsored by Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, to a conference committee.

Northam's bill, which Gov. Timothy M. Kaine supports, would ban smoking in every public eatery that does not have a separate and independently ventilated room to accommodate those who wish to light up. It would exempt private clubs. Restaurant workers could not be punished or fired for refusing to work in a smoking area.

The House of Delegates yesterday insisted upon its amendments that would allow smoking in restaurants so long as minors are not present and would require only that a smoking area be separated from a nonsmoking area by a door.

Meanwhile, a House bill that contains the amendments that substantially weaken the proposed ban narrowly cleared the Senate Local Government Committee by an 8-7 vote.

Today the Senate is expected to refer House Bill 1703, sponsored by Del. John A. Cosgrove, R-Chesapeake, to the Senate Education and Health Committee. That is the next step in a process that lawmakers say will strip the bill of its significant pro-smoking amendments and route it to the same bipartisan committee of negotiators.

When the two bills wind up in the conference committee, negotiators will fashion one piece of legislation that they hope can pass the General Assembly and be signed into law by Kaine.

A compromise discussed by Senate Democrats and House Republican leaders would allow smoking in patio areas that serve as entrances to restaurants, so long as the flaps of any temporary patio enclosure are raised. The compromise also would extend the effective date of the law to Dec. 1, 2009, instead of July 1.

Conference committee members from both houses have not yet been appointed. Proposed legislation likely will come up for a vote early next week.

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or .