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U.S. Senate Casts Historic Vote to Regulate Tobacco Products 

The U.S. Senate today delivered a truly historic victory for America's children and health by approving legislation to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products. Forty-five years after the first U.S. Surgeon General's report linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer, the most deadly product sold in America will no longer be the least regulated product sold in America.

Today's 79-17 vote underscores the bipartisan consensus that the time finally has come to end the special protection the tobacco industry has enjoyed for too long and at such great cost to the nation's health. The House passed similar legislation 298-112 in April, and Congress is expected to quickly send a final bill to President Obama, who is eager to sign it into law. This legislation represents the strongest action Congress has ever taken to reduce tobacco use, the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. If effectively implemented, it will significantly reduce the number of children who start to use tobacco, the number of adults who continue to use tobacco and the number of people who suffer and die as a result.

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