Republican lawmakers have said being able to puff on cigars inside the US Capitol is "about freedom"—which is probably why so many of them are miffed that they've (perhaps just temporarily) lost their smoking space.
- Musical chairs, office version: Per Axios, Rep. Tom Cole—who, as chair of the Rules Committee, boasted a Capitol "hideaway" that he transformed into a makeshift cigar bar—gave up that role in April to become chair of the House Appropriations Committee. That means he gave up that office to new Rules Committee Chair Michael Burgess. Burgess, a doctor, doesn't plan on having cigar parties in his new digs.
- Cole's new office? The Oklahoma congressman could just turn his new office as Appropriations Committee chair into his cigar get-together space, except he's decided to let the former chair of that panel, Kay Granger, hang onto that office. "I do not have and should not have the chairman's office right now ... because Kay Granger needs that and that's the appropriate thing to do," Cole says. Still, "we desperately need a place to smoke cigars."