With an accelerating national trend to limit indoor smoking, a member of the incoming Democratic leadership in Washington wants to ban smoking in the House Speaker's Lobby, Hill News reported Nov. 21.

"There's no question that the right health policy is to end smoking in the Speaker's Lobby and I will be surprised if it doesn't happen," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). "I realize some members want to smoke there, but there's absolutely no reason to force pages and others to breathe secondhand smoke."

Waxman has tried for years to end smoking in the area -- a refuge for House members seeking to avoid the press -- but was always rebuffed by the House GOP leadership. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) often smoked in the lobby.

The House Office Building Commission, consisting of the Speaker, majority leader and minority leader, would have to make the policy change; Boehner will be minority leader in the new Congress.

Only House members are allowed to smoke in the Speaker's Lobby; rooms in the House's Longworth and Cannon office buildings have also been designated as smoking areas. House members also may allow smoking in their own offices and in committee offices.

The District of Columbia recently banned smoking in all public spaces in the city, but Congress is exempt from the law.