04-03-2009, 12:37 PM
Hailey R. Branson, Hearst Newspapers
Friday, April 3, 2009
(04-03) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- In an important victory in Rep. Henry Waxman's long-fought battle against tobacco, the House easily passed a bill Thursday that would grant the federal government more control over the industry than ever before.
Under the bill, the Food and Drug Administration would be given the new power to regulate tobacco products. That power would include the right to set nicotine levels. The FDA also would be able set stricter rules for advertising and could require companies to list the ingredients in their products.
The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., does not allow the government to ban existing tobacco products but does allow it to put restrictions on them. Its passage, by a vote of 298-112 with support from nearly all House Democrats and almost half of Republicans, came one day after the federal cigarette tax more than doubled, from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack.
The federal government has never before had the power to regulate the tobacco industry. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the government did not have that authority.
"Here we are finally giving FDA that authority to regulate the leading preventable cause of death in America," Waxman, D-Los Angeles, said during a debate about the bill Wednesday evening.
Waxman has been championing tobacco regulation for more than a decade. In 1994, he chaired a series of hearings in which big tobacco CEOs infamously claimed that nicotine is not addictive.
Waxman's bill passed the House in July but failed to pass the Senate amid speculation that an unsupportive Bush administration would veto it. It has increased momentum with support from the Obama White House. Obama, an admitted smoker, supported the bill as a senator.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has urged the Senate to pass the legislation.
"By granting the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, we will protect public health, prevent disease, and stop tobacco companies from hooking America's children on the product," she said in a statement Thursday.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he is "confident that the Senate will approve it expeditiously."
The Massachusetts Democrat's assurance comes despite the fact that the bill will have a tougher time passing the Senate, where lawmakers from tobacco-growing states are fighting it.
The bipartisan senators from North Carolina, a leading tobacco-growing state, have joined to introduce a competing bill in the Senate that would give tobacco regulatory power not to the FDA, but to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., would create the Tobacco Regulatory Agency within the department. A similar House alternative by Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., was defeated 284-142.
What the passed House bill will do instead is create within 90 days of its enactment a Center for Tobacco Products within the FDA that will report to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs just like all other FDA entities.
Despite its easy House passage, the bill has received controversial support from tobacco giant Phillip Morris USA, which makes Marlboro cigarettes. No other major tobacco companies support the legislation, because the FDA could make it harder to come out with new products.
Competitors fear that Phillip Morris, which already dominates the industry, will maintain its lead with nothing new to challenge it.
The bill also contains a provision that would allow two nonvoting representatives from the tobacco industry to sit on a newly created FDA scientific advisory board.
Strong support for FDA regulation came from health agencies and the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF.
"The FDA has jurisdiction over things that are biologically active in your body, (and) tobacco is a drug, so it's a logical place to put the authority," said Stan Glantz, founder and director of the center and professor of cardiology at the university.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=...16RPHP.DTL
Friday, April 3, 2009
(04-03) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- In an important victory in Rep. Henry Waxman's long-fought battle against tobacco, the House easily passed a bill Thursday that would grant the federal government more control over the industry than ever before.
Under the bill, the Food and Drug Administration would be given the new power to regulate tobacco products. That power would include the right to set nicotine levels. The FDA also would be able set stricter rules for advertising and could require companies to list the ingredients in their products.
The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Todd Platts, R-Pa., does not allow the government to ban existing tobacco products but does allow it to put restrictions on them. Its passage, by a vote of 298-112 with support from nearly all House Democrats and almost half of Republicans, came one day after the federal cigarette tax more than doubled, from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack.
The federal government has never before had the power to regulate the tobacco industry. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the government did not have that authority.
"Here we are finally giving FDA that authority to regulate the leading preventable cause of death in America," Waxman, D-Los Angeles, said during a debate about the bill Wednesday evening.
Waxman has been championing tobacco regulation for more than a decade. In 1994, he chaired a series of hearings in which big tobacco CEOs infamously claimed that nicotine is not addictive.
Waxman's bill passed the House in July but failed to pass the Senate amid speculation that an unsupportive Bush administration would veto it. It has increased momentum with support from the Obama White House. Obama, an admitted smoker, supported the bill as a senator.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has urged the Senate to pass the legislation.
"By granting the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, we will protect public health, prevent disease, and stop tobacco companies from hooking America's children on the product," she said in a statement Thursday.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said in a statement Thursday that he is "confident that the Senate will approve it expeditiously."
The Massachusetts Democrat's assurance comes despite the fact that the bill will have a tougher time passing the Senate, where lawmakers from tobacco-growing states are fighting it.
The bipartisan senators from North Carolina, a leading tobacco-growing state, have joined to introduce a competing bill in the Senate that would give tobacco regulatory power not to the FDA, but to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., would create the Tobacco Regulatory Agency within the department. A similar House alternative by Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., was defeated 284-142.
What the passed House bill will do instead is create within 90 days of its enactment a Center for Tobacco Products within the FDA that will report to the Commissioner of Food and Drugs just like all other FDA entities.
Despite its easy House passage, the bill has received controversial support from tobacco giant Phillip Morris USA, which makes Marlboro cigarettes. No other major tobacco companies support the legislation, because the FDA could make it harder to come out with new products.
Competitors fear that Phillip Morris, which already dominates the industry, will maintain its lead with nothing new to challenge it.
The bill also contains a provision that would allow two nonvoting representatives from the tobacco industry to sit on a newly created FDA scientific advisory board.
Strong support for FDA regulation came from health agencies and the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UCSF.
"The FDA has jurisdiction over things that are biologically active in your body, (and) tobacco is a drug, so it's a logical place to put the authority," said Stan Glantz, founder and director of the center and professor of cardiology at the university.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=...16RPHP.DTL