The Democrats on the Senate Health Committee voted down two amendments from tobacco and e-cigarette vendors to the tobacco licensing bill before passing the underlying bill and sending it to the Committee on Ways & Means.
The bill’s sponsors, Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaverton, navigated the legislation through a strait with rocks on both sides, but its two-year odyssey is not complete, as the budget committee is notorious for late-session capers and emotional feuds between partisans or even between members of the same party that derail legislation.
As if to illustrate the rigorous balance Monnes Anderson has had to strike, Senate Bill 1559 cleared the Senate Health Committee on a party-line vote, with an assist from Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who filled in for Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, for the hearing late Thursday evening.
On the right, the Republicans wanted to restore an exception to the Oregon Clean Indoor Air Act that expired Jan. 1, allowing vape shop customers to test electronic cigarettes in their stores to optimize their preferences before purchasing the products, which they claim are used to help people quit smoking.
Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, also put forward an amendment that would have capped licensing fees at $250 to protect small corner stores from high, arbitrary and unpredictable fees set by the Department of Revenue.
But on the other side, many public health advocates, including the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Oregon Nurses Association, all protested a compromise in the bill that would limit the ability of counties and cities to pass stiffer requirements on location and venue for selling tobacco and e-cigarettes.
Monnes Anderson said that these groups would work to sink the bill outright if the vaping industry succeeded with its amendment.
The House Health Committee had also debated a tax on e-cigarette devices, but that bill died Wednesday because of united opposition from House Republicans, whose support would be needed on the House floor. Two victories for the vaping industry would likely be untenable for public health advocates who banded together last year to ban the devices for people under 18 and keep them out of public indoor spaces.
Shields missed Thursday’s hearing -- which came after an exhaustive Senate floor debate on the minimum wage hike -- to attend to his family responsibilities, and he was absent from a vote on the vaping amendment. On Tuesday, Shields had noted his support for the small businesses and their attempts to wean people off regular cigarettes, and Monnes Anderson had gaveled to a close that hearing rather than allow that amendment to go forward.
Shields also tried to get Kruse to commit to supporting the bill with that amendment, but the Republican senator would not promise him anything because the bill must still pass through another committee where it could be amended before the final Senate vote.
Steiner Hayward spoke out against capping the fees, arguing that $250 could be too little to cover administrative costs as well as the costs of educating retailers about the law.
“I think it’s inappropriate for taxpayer dollars to subsidize the cost of this program,” she said.
Monnes Anderson also noted that convenience stores typically sell greater volumes of cigarettes than large supermarkets.
