Historic Tobacco Settlement Appears Near

WASHINGTON — Negotiators trying to reach a historic tobacco settlement said Thursday that they continued to make progress on key issues, and several sources close to the talks expressed confidence that the deal would be concluded today.

“We’ve made tremendous progress today,” said Mississippi Atty. Gen. Mike Moore, the lead negotiator for the state attorneys general who have sued the industry seeking massive damages for tax money expended treating sick smokers.

“We got more concessions from the industry today,” Moore said, but he declined to provide any details at a late afternoon news conference at a hotel here.

Other sources said progress had been made on key sticking points, including the degree of authority the federal Food and Drug Administration will have over the cigarette companies and whether the industry could be subject to punitive damages in the future.

Moore and some of the other negotiators have been saying for weeks that the settlement was almost done. But the talks have dragged on, and in recent days participants have come up with a string of elaborate analogies to describe the slow progress.

“This is like courting Princess Di,” said Washington attorney John Coale, a leader of a coalition of lawyers who have filed class-action suits against the tobacco companies. “It’s a slow process; it’s not a one- night stand.”

Negotiators worked late into the night, and Moore said they would resume this morning. Moore also reported that he had “a very positive meeting” with White House officials Thursday.

A settlement would resolve 40 state lawsuits against the industry, seeking billions in recovery of money spent treating sick smokers, and 18 class-action suits filed on behalf of individual smokers.

A settlement is expected to bar future class-action suits against cigarette companies. The industry has agreed to severe advertising and marketing restrictions. Other sources said the industry is expected to pay upward of $350 billion as part of the deal. How that money would be allocated is still unresolved.

An informed source said negotiators are scrambling to resolve a last-minute issue: how the settlement can accommodate potential federal claims for reimbursement of tobacco-related health-care costs under Medicare and medical programs for veterans. Members of Congress are likely to insist that a settlement address these costs as well as the Medicaid reimbursements being sought by the states.

State officials welcomed comments by President Clinton in a Wall Street Journal interview published Thursday that he would not “rule in or out” intervening in the talks if his help was needed.

But Thursday night, Rahm Emanuel, senior advisor to the president, said that some people were reading too much into Clinton’s comments.

“If there was one chair left at the negotiating table, we wouldn’t sit in that chair,” Emanuel declared. “This must be settled by the parties at the table. We’re not at the table. We won’t be at the table.”

Emanuel added: “If they reach a settlement, we’ll review it from the perspective of children’s health and the nation’s public health.”

Since the settlement would require congressional approval, Clinton’s position on the deal would be key. Public health advocates have voiced fears that even if a good settlement is negotiated, it could be weakened during the legislative process.

The negotiators have been searching for ways to avoid that, and at a public meeting of a special advisory panel on tobacco policy Wednesday, Washington Atty. Gen. Christine Gregoire said that if Congress makes fundamental changes “the deal is off.”

Among the unresolved issues, said Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, is how many secret documents the cigarette companies would have to disclose. Several participants said that in Thursday’s sessions, Matt Myers, executive director of the Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, stiffened his position on this matter.

Sources said that industry lawyers have expressed willingness to turn over internal research documents about the hazards of smoking, but not memos about what should be done with that research.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), expressing fear that some key secrets would not come to light, has introduced legislation calling for the creation of a government board to review internal company documents.

One compromise proposed in the talks is the creation of an independent board of state court judges that would review perhaps thousands of documents to determine if they should be made public.

Negotiators also are still wrestling over how much power the FDA will have over the industry and, in particular, the regulation of nicotine, the component of cigarettes that makes them addictive. Industry officials, anticipating that the government will eventually want to ban nicotine altogether, are seeking a pledge that that will not happen for a number of years. Sources said that in the latest draft of the agreement, the time period is still blank.

Although that point would have to be resolved before the negotiations concluded, one attorney general said: “We don’t have to have every detail to announce a settlement. This will be an agreement in principle.”

Times staff writer Myron Levin in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.