House, in Reversal, Backs VA Tobacco Suit Funding

Reversing a vote lawmakers took just one day earlier, the House decided Tuesday not to block a significant source of funding for the Justice Department’s lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

The House accepted by voice vote an amendment by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) to allow the Department of Veterans Affairs to spend $4 million from general administration accounts to help the Justice Department pay for tobacco litigation. The department’s suit seeks to recover from the five major cigarette manufacturers the cost to the government of caring for sick smokers.

The amendment came on the 2001 spending bill for the departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development.

Anti-smoking advocates hailed the vote as a win, but cautioned that there would be similar fights on at least three other bills that have not yet reached the floor of the House and a similar provision in a Senate bill.

“This debate shows . . . the congressional leadership lacks the votes to block the lawsuit and override a presidential veto,” said William Corr, executive vice president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a leading anti-smoking group.

But, Corr added: “This is a victory for today. Until the congressional leadership ceases all efforts . . . to block the lawsuit, it’s not over.”

On the House floor, Republicans said they were accepting Waxman’s amendment Tuesday because there was no longer any risk that the money for the lawsuit would come from the VA’s medical services accounts, which they argued should be reserved exclusively for veterans services.

“We made the point that veterans medical care funds are sacrosanct,” said Rep. James T. Walsh, (R-N.Y.), chairman of the subcommittee that controls the veterans spending bill. “So when the gentleman came back with an amendment that talks about using administrative funds, we believe the amendment is superfluous,” but the GOP was willing to accept it, he said.

House Republicans played down the significance of Tuesday’s action, pointing out that it was a voice vote and warning that it offered little indication of whether the Justice Department would be given all the funding it needs to pay for the lawsuit. The department is relying on money from several agencies.

The coming debates on the other spending bills that seek to block the department’s ability to pay for the suit will sound somewhat different political themes, said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Feehery predicted that on the next bill to come to the floor, Republicans would focus on their larger discontent with the Justice Department. The bill includes the 2001 funding allocation for the department and has a provision blocking the department from taking money from any other agency for prosecutions it undertakes on the government’s behalf.

“It’s going to be a referendum on the Justice Department,” said Feehery. The department’s “reputation has been badly damaged by [Atty. Gen.] Janet Reno’s tenure, the way they handled the Elian Gonzalez case, the campaign finance reform, Microsoft, tobacco--it’s a very political Justice Department.”

For the moment, however, Justice officials said they viewed the House decision Tuesday as a gratifying step. “This is a very positive development in our effort to afford the American taxpayers a day in court,” department spokesman Myron Marlin said.

Anti-smoking advocates said the effort to block the suit had everything to do with tobacco politics.

However, in recent years, industry-backed provisions often have not survived public scrutiny. Several years ago when the cigarette manufacturers were in negotiations with the state attorneys general to settle their lawsuits, a $50-billion tax credit to offset the cost to the manufacturers of any settlement was slipped into a massive budget bill.

When anti-smoking legislators objected and forced a vote, the provision was stripped from the bill. Waxman said Tuesday’s reversal was in the same vein.

“Now that the public is becoming aware that Republicans are trying to stop a lawsuit on behalf of the taxpayers of this country, those efforts are going to face the same fate,” Waxman said.

The VA money is crucial to the Justice Department’s ability to pay for its lawsuit because Congress refused to give the department the money it requested to fund the suit from its own budget. As a result, Justice is using a law that allows it to take money from the government agencies that will benefit as a result of the litigation.

The Justice Department is funding roughly half the suit against the cigarette makers from its own budget.