Short-flight smoking ban receives OK in Congress
February 8, 1988
WASHINGTON (AP)—U.S. Rep. Richard Durbin of Illinois never expected to win when he took on tobacco interests by pushing an amendment to ban smoking aboard short airline flights.
Defying both the odds and House elders who fought him all the way to the House floor, Durbin succeeded and says the victory brought other surprises.
“It’s interesting how many people I don’t know, when they hear my name, recognize the connection,” he said. “Usually, they’re smokers.
“I ran into a woman the other night, sitting next to her at a Georgetown basketball game. She said: ‘I know you. You’re the guy who’s not going to let me smoke when I fly out to Detroit.'”
But for every negative reaction, the third-term Democrat from Springfield said he gets a positive response.
“Within 48 hours after the amendment passed, I got an unsolicited check from a doctor in El Paso, Texas, for my campaign,” he recalled recently.
“Usually, you get a letter from somebody who’s steamed at what you’ve done or said. Very few people just sit down and write you a check—people who don’t even know you.”
The legislation to ban smoking aboard commercial flights of two hours or less takes effect April 23, and Durbin said he will start working soon with the Federal Aviation Administration on regulations to implement the law.
“I’m hoping the airlines will get involved, as well,” he said. “I want it to be smooth, and I want passengers to know when they go to the airport what the regulations will be and how they’ll be enforced.”
The two-year smoking ban was adopted as an amendment to an appropriations bill Congress passed in the final hours of its 1987 session.