House approves new powers to regulate tobacco

By a 3 to 1 margin, the House on Friday approved a bill passed by the Senate this week that gives the federal government sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco.

President Obama hailed the bipartisan votes in Congress on the bill, which he said “truly defines change in Washington.” He said he looks forward to signing it into law.

“This is the day when Americans can begin to truly kick the habit, with the full force of our laws marshaled to protect consumers, and especially our young people,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), a key sponsor of the House version of the bill.

The House had already passed a nearly identical version of the bill in April, but leaders needed to ratify the Senate’s action. Friday’s vote was 307 to 97.

Obama, himself a smoker who has struggled to quit, congratulated lawmakers in brief remarks in the White House Rose Garden.

“We’ve known for years, even decades, about the harmful, addictive and often deadly effects of tobacco products,” he said. “Each year, Americans pay nearly $100 billion in added healthcare costs due to smoking. Each day, about 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become regular smokers.”

The legislation gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the advertising, marketing and manufacturing of tobacco products. It comes 50 years after the surgeon general first warned about the health effects of tobacco.

Tobacco is used by one in five Americans, yet it is one of the least-regulated consumer products.

For smokers, the law will mean confronting graphic warnings of the risks of their habit every time they pick up a pack, and possible changes to the formulations of cigarettes and cigars.

The law bans most cigarette flavorings and orders the FDA to study whether menthol should also be banned, on the theory that the flavorings make it easier for first-time smokers to get hooked by masking the harsh taste of tobacco.

The legislation stops short of allowing the FDA to prohibit tobacco or to eliminate nicotine, the addictive drug in tobacco, entirely.