Quick House Vote Sought on Regulation of Tobacco

Three key congressional tobacco foes said Monday that they will try to get a quick House vote on legislation that would require the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco but would forbid the agency to ban cigarettes.

Reps. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Mike Synar (D-Okla.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that they have asked the Rules Committee to allow the amendment to be attached to the agriculture appropriations bill so that it could be put on a fast track to a House vote. Usually, legislation cannot be attached to a spending bill but the Rules Committee can waive that requirement.

A decision by the Rules Committee could come today or Wednesday and the House could take up the measure later this week. The lawmakers made it clear that the amendment was not meant to imply that the FDA does not already have the authority to regulate tobacco products. But they said that it would allow Congress to vote on specific aspects of tobacco regulation that the FDA should address. It “would ensure that the FDA regulates tobacco in certain areas while guaranteeing that cigarettes will not be banned,” they said in a statement.

The FDA already believes that it has the authority to regulate cigarettes as drugs because of the addictive nature of nicotine and has been working in recent months to build a case for such regulation. Nevertheless, FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler has asked for direction from Congress before proceeding.

Thomas Lauria, a spokesman for the Tobacco Institute, said that the industry has “a longstanding opposition to the FDA’s regulation of a product that is not a food, not a drug and not a cosmetic.” Passage of the amendment would usher in “a new era of prohibition,” he added.