The expanded ban also encompasses charter flights through domestic and international carriers that require a flight attendant to be on board.

In a statement Wednesday, Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) praised the new measure, which is set to go into effect in one month. Reed, who has pushed the FDA to tighten its regulations on the devices, had been calling on the DOT to ban e-cigarette use on planes since 2014.

“Airline passengers and flight attendants should not be subjected to potential harm from e-cigarette secondhand exposure,” said Reed, the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. “And the new rule makes it less likely that these devices will spark an emergency.”

Reed joined Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) last year in asking DOT to finalize new rules on electronic cigarettes to minimize the fire hazard on flights. In his statement, Reed pointed to a January incident in which a Hawaiian Airlines flight was forced to emergency land when an e-cigarette stowed in a checked bag may have caught on fire.

In a congressional Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure meeting earlier this month, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton proposed a ban on vaping on airplanes. The amendment, part of a more comprehensive aviation bill still working its way through congress, passed in the committee.

But not before Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), an e-cig advocate, defiantly puffed on a vaporizer of his own. Hunter hailed the benefits of vaping, saying the activity has helped him quit smoking.

The congressman was concerned that Norton’s proposal would make travel more difficult for passengers flying with asthma inhalers and other kinds of medical devices. In its statement, DOT said its ban does not extend to devices such as nebulizers.

Hunter’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, sharply criticized the DOT’s decision Wednesday, comparing vaporizers to any other battery-powered device.

“This Administration sees vaping as a proxy fight with tobacco, it’s that simple, when in actuality vaping is very different, as both a product and a preference,” Kasper said. “The point that vaping pens are a fire hazard is just a convenient excuse—because why not look at anything else with a battery, or anything else with a potential to ignite under extreme conditions.”

Norton said Wednesday she was pleased with DOT’s rule because it was not certain the FAA reauthorization bill to which her amendment was tied would pass. Norton said the devices are unsafe, citing a case last week when a man suffered severe burns after one of them exploded in his pocket.

“If such a fire occurred on an airplane, it could be catastrophic, which is why DOT had previously issued a rule (prohibiting) electronic cigarettes in checked baggage,” Norton said in a statement. “In any case, smoking was banned on airplanes more than 25 years ago. I believe this case should have been closed long ago.”

A federal law banning smoking on all U.S. flights of less than six hours took effect on Feb. 25, 1990.