Current Bill Developments

Although we have contacted various key stakeholders for HB 186, we have not received any replies. We are still looking to receive responses within the next few weeks. Should we not receive any responses, we will continue to try and contact these stakeholders through other means of communication such as written letters.

Through tracking this bill, we have become aware that it has been killed in sub-committee. This means that the bill has been laid aside and will not be brought to a House vote or considered any further for now. Delegate Beverly Sherwood, who is the chair of the House Militia, Police and Public Safety committee, has the ability to bring this bill to a committee vote at a later date.

There are a few possibilities as to why this bill might have been killed. One possibility is tobacco company influence. Many people who voted to kill this bill have ties to the tobacco company. Another possibility is that the civil penalty would hard to enforce, unless a person was stopped for another moving violation. The Health Care Reform is also requiring a lot of attention in the government currently, which makes smaller bills like HB 186 less significant right now.