Senators That Voted Yes for Tobacco Bill - State By State
Senate Passes Historic Tobacco Bill
07/15/2004
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate overwhelmingly approved a landmark tobacco deal on Thursday to give the Food and Drug Administration long-sought power to regulate cigarettes and give $12 billion in aid to tobacco farmers.
Though hailed as a breakthrough by public health groups, the measure faces an uncertain future because it was approved as part of a massive corporate tax bill that must still be reconciled with the House of Representative's version. Those talks are expected to be long and complex.
The lopsided 78-15 vote will strengthen the Senate position in those negotiations, and many lawmakers who want greater public health jurisdiction over tobacco were more optimistic than they had been since 1998, when a tobacco bill linked to multibillion-dollar state lawsuits against tobacco companies collapsed.
"This represents a fundamental change and a fundamental step forward," said Matt Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
While the House and Senate have had extensive hearings and probes of Big Tobacco, Myers noted this would be the first time either chamber had passed meaningful regulation of the companies' advertising, marketing, ingredients and safety claims.
The FDA itself tried to assert its authority over tobacco in the 1990s, but the battle went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2000 that the FDA did not have jurisdiction under existing law. This legislation would change the law and grant the agency that explicit power.
Under the proposal, the tobacco industry would finance a $12-billion buyout of Depression-era crop quotas, an arcane price support system that no longer serves farmers' economic interests in an increasingly global market.
Mitch McConnell, who represents the tobacco-growing state of Kentucky and is the number two Republican leader in the Senate, agreed the components of the bill had to be linked if either was to pass.
MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
"It's not a shotgun wedding, it's a marriage of convenience," said McConnell, lead author of the buyout legislation.
"Yes it's a marriage of convenience, but I believe it's a good marriage," agreed Ohio Republican Mike DeWine, a co-author with Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy of the FDA bill.
"This is the most important step we can take for public health short of curing cancer itself," Kennedy said.
The proposal would give the FDA expanded powers to require more forceful health warnings on cigarette packs, regulate advertising, more aggressively combat underage sales and regulate ingredients to make cigarettes less harmful. It could not ban cigarettes or completely eliminate nicotine.
The major cigarette companies are divided over the measure. The Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris, has endorsed it, but R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co on Thursday repeated its "vigorous opposition."
A rival House version of the tobacco measure attached to the corporate tax bill would cost taxpayers -- not the industry -- $9.6 billion, and is not linked to FDA regulation.
Smoking is the top preventable cause of death in the United States, leading to 400,000 deaths a year. Ninety percent of smokers get hooked as children or teen-agers, according to public health groups.
U.S. Senators offer bill regulating tobacco by FDA
Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine support this. Both Republicans!
Friday June 14,2002, 3:21 pm Eastern Time -By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON, June 14 - The Food and Drug Administration would regulate tobacco products under legislation introduced on Friday by a bipartisan group of senators looking to stop tobacco advertising aimed at children.
Co-sponsor Sen. Edward Kennedy denied the intent was to ban smoking. "This legislation is about protecting children," the Massachusetts Democrat told a news conference. "There are Americans who are going to smoke, and we understand that."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago that the FDA had overstepped in authority in 1996 when it issued sweeping regulations for tobacco products.
"This legislation will give FDA the power to prevent industry advertising designed to appeal to children wherever it will be seen by children," Kennedy said at a news conference along with co-sponsors Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, and Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat.
Kennedy said the bill closely tracked a 1998 bill that had broad support in the Senate. He expected companion bipartisan legislation to be introduced in the House of Representatives soon, but he declined to name the anticipated sponsors.
The tobacco industry lobby is divided over efforts to legislate FDA authority over their products.
Loews Corp.'s (NYSE:LTR - News) Lorillard Tobacco Co., maker of Newport and Kent cigarettes, quickly issued a statement denouncing the measure as an attempt to ban smoking.
"We interpret this proposed legislation as a thinly-veiled attempt to grant authority to an agency that by the terms of its existing mandate, must find cigarettes are not and can never be made safe and effective, and therefore would have no choice but to eventually ban the product," said Steve Watson, the company's vice president for External Affairs.
But tobacco giant Philip Morris Cos. Inc. (NYSE:MO - News) said it welcomed the Kennedy bill. "Where there are difference, they are in degree only," said Michael Pfeil, public affairs vice president.
Under the bill, the FDA would have the authority to reduce or remove hazardous ingredients from cigarettes.
The measure would also provide for stronger warning labels on all cigarette and smokeless tobacco packages, and give the FDA the authority to prevent "misrepresentations" of tobacco products.
And it would give the FDA the power to limit the sale of cigarettes to face-to-face transactions in which the age of the purchaser can be verified by identification.
The legislation was backed by over two dozen public health groups including the American Cancer Society and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. They said it was an improvement over earlier proposals that also would have allowed the FDA to regulate tobacco but were "filled with loopholes.". (Washington congressional newsroom, 202-898-8390))