Representative Mark Higley presented a committee amendment on H 3 21 to add nicotine, whether natural or synthetic, and “including nicotine alkaloids and nicotine analogs,” to the definition of “other tobacco products” before the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee.

Higley said the change would codify a practice already in place. “These are products that have been taxed by the tax department, all along. The governor, as well as the tax department, would like to see this codified in law, and that's basically what this does,” he said.

Higley described a second, technical amendment that removes an inconsistent use of the word “and” in the bill’s definition language to make the phrasing uniform. He said the amendment is a committee amendment and identified it as amendment number 11.

Committee members asked whether the amendment would change the tax burden. Higley replied, “Well, there isn't because it's been taxed all along,” and the committee reported taking a straw poll that he said was unanimous. No formal roll-call vote or final action on the amendment was recorded in the transcript.

The committee did not record additional debate on policy effects, and no fiscal estimate or statutory citation was provided in the discussion. The committee indicated it would report the outcome when it moved to a formal vote.