May 5, 2000

United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative:

We are writing to urge you to cosponsor two bills (H.R. 4207 and H.R. 4042) that were recently introduced by Representatives Ganske, Dingell, and Waxman to provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the meaningful authority to regulate tobacco. Our organizations strongly support both measures.

In its recent ruling on FDA regulation of tobacco products, the U.S. Supreme Court called tobacco the nation’s most significant public health threat, particularly for children and adolescents, and made clear that the obligation to protect our kids from tobacco falls squarely on Congress. H.R. 4207 and H.R. 4042 would grant FDA authority over tobacco, as it has over food products and drug products, except tobacco.

Tobacco use causes over 400,000 deaths each year. Unlike the manufacturer of any other product consumed by Americans, tobacco companies have continued to escape even the most basic oversight for health and safety. For example, tobacco companies are not required to test additives for safety purposes, inform consumers what is in their products or take any action to make their products less harmful or less addictive.

Both H.R. 4207 and H.R. 4042 would address these problems, while also restricting those forms of marketing that have the greatest appeal to children and keeping tobacco out of the hands of kids.

H.R. 4207, introduced by Dr. Ganske, also seeks to address the concerns of tobacco farmers. It makes clear that FDA cannot go onto farms or be involved in the regulation of on-farm production of tobacco. This bill also includes language from Senator McCain’s 1998 comprehensive tobacco bill that was sought by the National Association of Convenience Stores to address their concerns related to retailing.

H.R. 4042, introduced by Mr. Waxman, also seeks to capture some of the additional provisions that the tobacco companies agreed to as part of the 1997 settlement with the state Attorneys General. It includes additional restrictions on marketing, warning labels and regulation of ingredients.

Explicitly granting the FDA authority over tobacco products, as provided in H.R. 4207 and H.R. 4042, would not subject tobacco or the tobacco industry to more intensive governmental scrutiny than other products or industries. Rather, these bills would simply apply to tobacco products the same kind of regulatory oversight that already applies to all other legal and far less harmful products consumed by Americans.

It is important to note that H.R. 4207 and H.R. 4042 reflect the views of the American public. A recent poll of 800 likely voters, conducted for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, shows overwhelming support for FDA authority to regulate tobacco. By a three to one margin (75 percent to 22 percent), voters believe Congress should enact a bill to give the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products. This support crosses all geographic, demographic, gender, and political lines. The majority of voters in every region, age bracket, income group, education level and political party favor FDA regulation. Even 60 percent of smokers favor Congressional action.

Specifically, voters overwhelmingly support a broad range of actions that the FDA should take to regulate tobacco products: