Jump to full article: New York Times, 2009-01-06
Author: DUFF WILSON
Intro: The new Congress plans to move aggressively against the tobacco industry in coming months by regulating cigarettes, raising per-pack sales taxes and ratifying an international antitobacco treaty, according to aides for key lawmakers and experts who expect the Obama administration to break a logjam on smoking issues.
The measures, which even tobacco executives acknowledge as nearly inevitable, are ones that the Bush administration opposed, vetoed or declined to act upon but that President-elect Barack Obama, himself an intermittent smoker, supported as a senator.
The steps include legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration broad authority over cigarettes for the first time. . . .
In the House, Henry A. Waxman of California, a Democrat and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, plans to move quickly with the F.D.A. legislation
"We hope for early action on the bill in the new Congress," Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said of the landmark legislation, which Mr. Kennedy has promoted for years.
Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama's spokesman and incoming press secretary, said by e-mail on Sunday that Mr. Obama supported the measures when he was in Congress but had not made any decisions yet about actions on them in the White House.
Matthew L. Myers, the head of a nonprofit antismoking group, said on Monday, "The election of Barack Obama changes everything." . . .
Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress, whose new members will be sworn in on Tuesday, have also said they hope to pass legislation to raise federal cigarette taxes by 61 cents, to $1 a pack. That may even be among the economic measures awaiting Mr. Obama's signature as soon as he takes office Jan. 20, according to Congressional aides and antismoking lobbyists.
. . .
As a third step against smoking, Congressional aides and lobbyists on both sides expect the new president to submit an international tobacco control treaty to the Senate for ratification. . . .
In this country, an estimated 45 million people smoke. That number is unchanged since 1990, the American Lung Association says, although the number of cigarettes smoked has declined by one-third. . . .
The Democrats who are expected to help reinforce the efforts against tobacco include Tom Daschle, the president-elect's choice for health and human services secretary, who has been an ardent opponent of the cigarette industry.
And among those whose names are being circulated as candidates to head the F.D.A. is Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the antismoking health commissioner for Baltimore and a former investigator for Representative Waxman. It was Mr. Waxman who convened the memorable 1994 hearing where seven tobacco executives swore under oath that nicotine was not addictive.
Jump to full article »
Quotes from this article:
The election of Barack Obama changes everything. . . . I think that 2009 has the potential to be the most historic year in making progress on tobacco at the federal level since the first surgeon general's report in 1964.
Matthew L. Myers, "the head of a nonprofit antismoking group" (sez the Times). Quick action is expected on FDA regulation, a federal tax increase and ratification of the Framework Convention
|