About the bill
Should a loophole allowing minors to purchase tobacco products online be tightened or closed?
Context
Most states require a minimum age of 18 to purchase or use tobacco products, although 18 states and counting have raised the minimum age to 21. These states cross the political spectrum, including such red states as Arkansas, Texas, and Utah.
However, purchasing e-cigarettes online does not require any age verification under law. This allows for the skirting of state minimum age laws, which is problematic as e-cigarette use among teens reached its highest levels yet in 2018 — and possibly still rising.
What the legislation does
The Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act is bipartisan legislation that would mandate online age verification for sale of any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes. It would also ...
Sponsor and status
116th Congress (2019–2021)
This bill was introduced in a previous session of Congress and was passed by the House on October 28, 2019 but was never passed by the Senate.
S. 1253
(same title)
Passed Senate (House next) — Jul 2, 2020
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“DeLauro, Armstrong E-Cigarette Bill Passes House of Representatives”
—
Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-CT3]
(Sponsor)
on Oct 28, 2019
“House Passes Womack Cosponsored Bill to Block Online Sale of E-Cigarettes to Children”
—
Rep. Steve Womack [R-AR3]
(Co-sponsor)
on Oct 28, 2019
“My Votes – Week of October 28”
—
Rep. Cathy Rodgers [R-WA5]
on Nov 1, 2019
History
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Jul 24, 2019
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
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Oct 16, 2019
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Ordered Reported
A committee has voted to issue a report to the full chamber recommending that the bill be considered further. Only about 1 in 4 bills are reported out of committee. |
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Oct 28, 2019
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Passed House (Senate next)
The bill was passed in a vote in the House. It goes to the Senate next. The vote was by voice vote so no record of individual votes was made. |
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Oct 28, 2019
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Reported by House Committee on the Judiciary
A committee issued a report on the bill, which often provides helpful explanatory background on the issue addressed by the bill and the bill's intentions. |
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Jul 2, 2020
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Companion Bill —
Passed Senate (House next)
This activity took place on a related bill, S. 1253 (116th), possibly in lieu of similar activity on H.R. 3942 (116th). |
H.R. 3942 (116th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 3942. This is the one from the 116th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 116th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2019 to Jan 3, 2021. Legislation not enacted by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
We recommend the following MLA-formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:
“H.R. 3942 — 116th Congress: Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act.” www.GovTrack.us. 2019. January 19, 2021 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr3942>
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Where is this information from?
GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.
