Discussion on a bill regarding restricting indoor smoking turned into a debate on the future of the republic during Wednesday’s House Health Committee meeting.

The committee approved a bill – HB 1675 – that aims to tighten the Clean Indoor Air Act to reduce indoor smoking in casinos, private clubs and some drinking establishments.

“To me this is not about cigarette smoking,” Rep. Kathy Rapp, minority chair of the committee said. “It’s about our very freedoms and our freedom to choose as an adult. “It goes to the very core of our founding and our Constitution. We have the right to choose what environments we step into.”

The bill, sponsor and Health Committee Chair Dan Frankel argues, will eliminate loopholes in those spaces, expand the definition of smoking to include e-cigarettes and “give all localities the ability to enact smoke-free ordinances that are more protective than state law,” according to a legislative memo.

He stressed during Wednesday’s hearing that the bill is a response to a public health issue and said that a dramatic drop in the use of tobacco products was observed in response to similar restrictions.

Prior to the committee voting on the bill, three amendments were considered.

The first, which was approved, would permit a patio closed on no more than two sides to be excluded from the regulations.

“Several establishments contacted my office,” Rapp said, to see this exemption. “These owners of these mostly small businesses made this accommodation for their customers to be able to smoke away from people who did not want to be in an environment where smoking was permissible.”

A second amendment, also approved, removes language that identifies a private residence or vehicle as a workplace subject to the regulations. A third, which was rejected by the Democratically-controlled committee, would have exempted cigar stores and tobacco shops from the regulations.

Rapp challenged this provision because she said the language would require filtration systems that private clubs may not be able to afford. Rapp was particularly critical of not excluding veterans clubs from the regulations in the bill, which, she said, would require negative pressure spaces, 100 percent exhaust and full enclosure in addition to the filtration systems.

“I don’t know what that would cost,” she said. “I cannot imagine that it would be cheap.”

Rapp claimed that the exemptions would allow “organizations with plenty of money to gain exemption that others cannot afford.

“I do believe at the end of the day, Mr. Chairman, that we are taking away freedoms from the brave,” she said, specifically of the veterans club issue. “Maybe we can work on that amendment before it goes to the floor. We have a few weeks to do that. I do support the majority of the bill.”

But the restrictions on private clubs and veterans clubs?

“I think it’s government overreach,” she said. “It’s a major concern of mine.”

Rapp said the bill won’t go to the floor for a month and said she hopes to “try to come to (an) agreement on vets organizations and other clubs.”