Senator Dodd Statement on the Mark-Up of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act

May 19, 2009 -- Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, delivered the following statement at today’s committee mark-up, which he chaired, of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act:

“In my home state of Connecticut, more than 1 in 5 high school students smoke. Every year in Connecticut, 15,500 children try cigarettes for the first time and another 4,600 children become regular smokers. Absent action from Congress, more than 6 million children who are alive today will die from smoking, including 76,000 in Connecticut alone. That is completely unacceptable,” Dodd said. “If ever we had a moral obligation to act, it is at this moment. And so, the purpose of this historic public health legislation is simple: to protect our children and give them the longer, healthier future they deserve.

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The full text of Senator Dodd’s opening statement is below:

I call this executive session of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to order.

Our purpose today is to mark up and pass S. 982, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, introduced and championed by Chairman Kennedy.

This is an issue that many of us have worked on for a long time. When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down FDA’s tobacco rule in 2000 it became clear that legislation was necessary to protect children and the public’s health from deadly tobacco products.

Eight years ago, I introduced comprehensive children’s legislation that included, with the help of my good friend Sen. Harkin, the Kids Deserve Freedom from Tobacco Act to give FDA authority over tobacco.

In the 108th Congress, Senator Kennedy, was able to take this issue to the next level, working out a bipartisan bill, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, with Senator Mike DeWine, Representatives Henry Waxman and Tom Davis, and other members of this committee.

The bill we consider today has a long history, having passed each chamber, but never at the same time. Allow me to share some of that history with you.

In July of 2004, the Senate voted 78-15 to add it as an amendment to another bill. Unfortunately, the language was removed in conference.

Three months later, Senators Kennedy and DeWine reintroduced the bill, and it was passed by unanimous consent but the House did not consider it then.

Refusing to give up, Senator Kennedy reintroduced the bill in the 109th and 110th Congresses. In August of 2007 this Committee reported out this bill by a vote of 13-8. In July of 2008 the House passed a very similar bill by a vote of 326-102. Though the Senate version had 60 cosponsors, there was not enough time left in the year for the Senate to pass the House bill.

And on April 2nd of this year, the House once again passed its legislation with very minor changes by an overwhelming vote of 298-112.

The point I would make to my colleagues is this:

Over the years, this bill has been reviewed. It has been vetted. And it has been debated – over and over and over again. The time has come to act – to protect our nation’s children and pass this legislation into law.

And frankly, we cannot afford to wait any longer. Every day we delay, another 3,500 children are ensnared by tobacco companies who target them with impunity as they try smoking for the first time.

A thousand of these children will become addicted – and of these addicted smokers, a third will eventually die of smoking-related diseases.

Tobacco companies are well aware of these numbers. They know that if they can’t addict children, then they won’t have any smokers. Almost 90% of smokers begin as children – that is an astonishing figure.

Equally shocking is the fact that smoking kills more Americans every year than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, drugs, murders, and suicides combined – 400,000 in all.

In my home state of Connecticut, more than 1 in 5 high school students smoke. Every year 15,500 children try cigarettes for the first time and another 4,600 children become regular smokers.

Absent action from Congress, more than 6 million children who are alive today will die from smoking, including 76,000 in Connecticut alone.

That is completely unacceptable. If ever we had a moral obligation to act, it is at this moment.

And so, the purpose of this historic public health legislation is simple: to protect our children and give them the longer, healthier future they deserve.

It will give FDA the authority to prevent the sale and marketing of tobacco to children, to require changes to cigarettes to make them less harmful and protect the public health, and to prevent tobacco companies from using misleading marketing practices to encourage tobacco use.

It would accomplish this by prohibiting outdoor advertising within 1,000 feet of a school or playground.

It would limit advertising in publications with significant youth readership to a black-on-white, text-only format – no pictures, no mascots, no eye-catching logos.

It would restrict promotions that appeal to children and adolescents, and stop illegal sales of tobacco products to children and adolescents.

And lastly, it would prohibit tobacco-product vending machines except in adult-only facilities.

For this first time, this bill would regulate tobacco products, requiring all tobacco product manufacturers to register with the FDA and provide the agency with a detailed product list.

It would assess user fees on manufacturers to pay for the cost of FDA tobacco regulation.

And it would mandate larger and more informative health warnings on tobacco products, prohibiting misleading terms like “light” and “mild” on products that offer no health benefits whatsoever and instead are intended to kill.

This bill is supported by over 1,000 organizations, including all the major public health groups – the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association, among others. Thirty national faith organizations and over 800 state and local organizations support this bill.

In addition, former Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson and Donna Shalala; former Surgeon Generals, David Satcher and Richard Carmona; David Kessler, the former FDA Commissioner; and Julie Gerberding, the former CDC Director, have expressed their support of this legislation.

In its 2007 report Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation, the Institute of Medicine urged Congress to “confer upon the FDA broad regulatory authority over the manufacture, distribution, marketing and use of tobacco products” – and that is precisely what we give them in this bill.

Lastly, let me say that we would not be here, on the cusp of winning this fight, without the tireless efforts of our Chairman, Senator Kennedy, who has made the public health the cause of his lifetime.

This bill is but one more example of good policy he has shepherded through the Congress that puts children and the public first. I want to thank him for his leadership.

Passing this bill will be a historic, albeit long overdue victory for our nation’s children – protecting children from aggressive marketing by tobacco companies and establishing sound manufacturing practices for tobacco products.

The time has come to get this legislation over the finish line. I urge you all to pass this bill and put our children on the path to a healthier tomorrow

Source: Senator Chris Dodd