North Carolina senator bucks an effort to let the FDA regulate the industry.
Jump to full article: Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, 2009-06-03
Author: BARBARA BARRETT - Washington Correspondent
Intro: Walk into U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's office, and you'll notice the framed tobacco leaves on the wall. Sit down for a chat, and he's likely to tuck a pinch of dip under his lip before settling into his favorite chair, spit cup at his side.
Burr, a first-term Republican, isn't as well-known as some of his Senate colleagues. But Burr is raising his profile this week with a gloves-off fight in the Senate chamber to defend one of the most vilified industries in the country: tobacco.
Burr has long pledged to do everything in his power to stop legislation being debated in the Senate this week that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. He has threatened to filibuster, to offer procedural motions, to gum up the works for as long as he can.
"What we're getting ready to do in the United States Senate is the worst thing we can do," Burr said Tuesday.
Burr hails from Winston-Salem, home to R.J. Reynolds, the nation's second-largest tobacco manufacturing company and maker of Camel. Burr is the Senate's second-highest recipient of campaign contributions from the tobacco industry -- after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
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