The AJC offers an interesting look at how a bill gets 'hijacked'. It is the tale of an anti-smoking bill that ended up being a pro-bottled water bill. The original bill was a hideous nanny law that told parents they couldn't smoke around their infant children. It dictated that smoking would be banned in cars which contain children in a car seat, and would have been a stepping stone toward a total smoking prohibition, even in private vehicles and homes.

However, while the bill bounced back and forth between the Georgia House and Senate, the smoking legislation was gutted, and pro-bottled water legislation was added. Currently, food and beverages are banned on public transportation. Language was added to the anti-smoking bill to allow the consumption of bottled water on public trains and buses. The pro-water legislation started out as a separate bill, but had been passed over during the Georgia flag flap. It was attached to the anti-smoking bill as a compromise to get the bill passed through the House.

Hold on to your butts, I'm going to make a long story short. The bill bounced from the House to the Senate, who gutted the anti-smoking verbiage and passed it back to the House. The House put the smoking ban verbiage back in, and passed it back to the Senate. The Senate deleted the anti-smoking verbiage a second time and passed it back to the House. In the final minutes of the legislative session, the revised bill passed both houses.

In the end, bottled water is going to be allowed on public transit vehicles, and anti-smoking nanny legislation will have to wait until next year.