US Senate passes bill outlawing sale of inaugural tickets

The US Senate has endorsed legislation that would prohibit the sale and counterfeiting of tickets to the swearing-in of Barack Obama and on Thursday urged the lower House of Representatives to pass the bill.

"The presidential inauguration is one of the most important rituals of our democracy. The chance to witness it should not be bought and sold like tickets to a sporting event," Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC), said in a statement.

"My hope is that the House takes up and quickly passes this legislation so that we can stop scam artists and profiteers from tarnishing this important event," she said.

If the bill becomes law, people who sell or attempt to sell, or forge tickets to Tuesday's investiture of Obama and vice president Joe Biden could be fined 100,000 dollars and spend a year in jail.

Some 240,000 tickets to a special seated area on the National Mall, near the steps of the US Capitol where Obama will take the oath of office, have been distributed free of charge by members of Congress to their constituents, and by the president-elect and his soon-to-be vice president.