UPDATE=Final Senate Passage In Sight For Tobacco Control Bill
11 June 2009 - 3:53AM
Dow Jones News
The Senate on Wednesday cleared the last hurdle toward passage
of a long-debated bill to give the Food and Drug Administration
authority to regulate tobacco.
A final vote is expected Thursday, according to Sen. Chris Dodd,
D-Conn. The House passed a similar bill in April. President Barack
Obama has expressed support for the measure and is expected to sign
it once the two chambers work out their differences.
The 67-30 procedural vote shows considerable bipartisan support
for the legislation, which has been in the works for more than a
decade.
Moderate Republicans like Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins
of Maine have consistently voted in favor of the measure, but
hard-line conservatives like Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., John Thune,
R-S.D., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, also voted Wednesday to proceed
to final passage.
Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., was the only Democrat to vote no
Wednesday. Tobacco producers have a large presence in North
Carolina, her home state. Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) and
Lorillard Inc. (LO), two leading tobacco companies, are based in
North Carolina.
Many Republicans object to giving the FDA power to regulate
tobacco, saying that the agency is already hard-pressed to perform
its drug-safety mission.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., proposed creating a new agency within
the Health and Human Services Department to regulate tobacco, but
the Senate rejected that idea Tuesday.
Dodd recently has shepherded the bill through the Senate, taking
a role that in the past has been held by Sen. Edward Kennedy,
D-Mass., who has championed the proposal for years.
The bill requires all tobacco product manufacturers to register
with the FDA and provide the agency with a detailed product list.
It also would assess user fees on manufacturers to pay for the cost
of FDA tobacco regulation.
The FDA would have the authority to evaluate any health claims
made by cigarette makers and require companies to make changes in
their tobacco products. The bill also mandates larger and more
strongly worded warning labels on packets of cigarettes.
It imposes strict controls on advertising that restrict ads to
black and white and stop the use of terms "mild" and "low tar."
Altria Group, Inc. (MO), the parent company of tobacco producer
Philip Morris USA, announced its support in March for the House
bill allowing FDA regulation of tobacco.
But smaller tobacco companies criticize the legislation, saying
it would freeze in place the dominance of big companies by making
it difficult to introduce new products.
-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263;
fawn.johnson@dowjones.com