House panel swiftly passes FDA tobacco-regulation bill

WASHINGTON -- A House panel passed a sweeping tobacco-regulation bill today, putting it on pace for passage by the full House far earlier in the congressional session than last year.

After blocking repeated Republican attempts to delay or overhaul the legislation, the House Energy and Commerce committee voted 39-13 to give the Food and Drug Administration control over tobacco products.

The bill would restrict the marketing of cigarettes, cigars or smokeless tobacco and allow the FDA to regulate the content of cigarettes. The bill would bar the agency from regulating farmers or imposing a ban on tobacco products.

The legislation is nearly identical to a bill the House passed last summer. Despite bipartisan support in the Senate, the bill did not receive action there last year, leaving the House action as the furthest point that health advocates have reached in their decade-long fight for tobacco regulation.

Six Republicans joined the Democratic committee majority to send the bill to the full House today.

Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., the bill's chief sponsor, said the committee vote should lead to swift action by the House.

An aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who carried the bill in the Senate last year, said it was not clear whether a new bill would be introduced or whether the Senate would simply act on Waxman's bill once it passes the House.

Among the alternatives rejected by the committee today was a 200-page amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., that would have combined smoking-cessation programs with research and marketing strategies to encourage smokers to use less harmful, smokeless products.

"It's not the nicotine," Buyer said, "it's the smoke that kills."

Buyer also introduced the amendment as a stand-alone bill with Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.

Despite the defeat of the Buyer amendment on a 34-18 party-line vote, McIntyre said he and Buyer are committed to bringing their bill to the House floor.

McIntyre said he is more concerned about "keeping the FDA off the farm" than the marketing aspects of the bill. "The FDA is already clearly underfunded and understaffed."The committee-passed bill would not allow the government to further regulate tobacco farmers.

Many of the arguments were a replay of last year's House committee debate -- with Republicans saying the FDA needs to focus on its core mission before getting new powers.

The measure has split the tobacco industry, with industry giant Altria Group Inc. the lone company favoring the bill. Altria is the Virginia-based parent company of Philip Morris USA and UST Inc., the nation's largest smokeless-tobacco company.

In a statement, Altria expressed support for the bill and its "tough but reasonable" regulation of tobacco products. "We . . . hope to see it signed into law."

Competitors, including Reynolds American and Lorillard Tobacco have argued that the bill's marketing restrictions and expansion of health warning labels to fill half the packaging of tobacco products would freeze the competitive market, favoring Philip Morris, the market leader.

Democrats claim the FDA is the right agency to police tobacco and would pay for the regulation through a tax on cigarettes.

Contact Neil H. Simon at or (202) 662-7669.

Richard Craver is a staff writer for the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.