Intense Senate Debate Starts On Tobacco Bill
McCain's bill headed for a vote this week
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, May 18) -- After months of negotiations and a walkout by cigarette companies, a sweeping anti-tobacco bill moved to the Senate floor, as the chamber took up the bill Monday night.
The disagreements are far from over, though, and in fact, this may be one of those rare times when a congressional debate actually succeeds in shaping a piece of legislation.
"It is illegal for children to purchase tobacco in every state in the country. And in every state ... tobacco companies have invested enormous sums of money and time to encourage widespread lawbreaking," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
"Now is the time to put an end to it."
The bill, the "National Tobacco Policy and Youth Smoking Reduction Act," was crafted by McCain and approved 19-1 by his Senate Commerce Committee last month. It would:
- Increase cigarette taxes by $1.10 over five years. Another proposal, approved by the Senate Finance Committee last week, would go even further, raising taxes by $1.50 a pack. Now federal taxes on cigarettes are 24 cents a pack, and due to increase to 39 cents by 2002 no matter what happens to the tobacco legislation.
- Cap the amount of damages the industry would pay plaintiffs at
$6.5 billion a year.
- Limit the cigarette industry's ability to advertise, with restrictions on billboard advertising
- Give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate
nicotine.
- Impose up to $3.5 billion a year in fines if youth smoking does
not fall by agreed-on goals.
- Provide $28.5 billion in relief for tobacco farmers.
Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) urged senators to "remain calm" when the debate begins. "It is an emotional issue," Lott said. "It is a big bill."
Lott's prediction proved correct as Democrats opened the session with sharp complaints about a last-minute change Republicans inserted into the bill to phase out the 68-year-old federal tobacco price support program with affected farmers to be compensated by the government.
Objecting to the move, Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) declared, "The bipartisanship has ended."
A lengthy debate is expected. A final vote could come by week's end, though the threat of a filibuster makes the timing uncertain. Sen. Don Nickles, who opposes the measure, conceded it is likely to pass.
At a news conference, Lott said the Finance Committee's proposed $1.50-a-pack tax increase "complicates" the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said there is a lot of
momentum to pass the bill, but cautioned it could be a "legislative
minefield" depending on the amendments offered.
Daschle said an early test for the bill could be the amendment to raise the tax on cigarettes by $1.50 a pack, more than the $1.10 a pack in the McCain legislation.
Daschle criticized the tobacco companies for walking away from the
tobacco bill, saying they "are not playing this very smartly." Daschle said they wasted a lot of money on an ad campaign against the measure, and he said he doesn't think the ad campaign "changed one vote."
Immediately after it cleared committee, McCain's bill came under intense criticism from some fellow Republicans, who said it was a tax-and-spend piece of social engineering that had less to do with cutting teenage smoking than funding government programs.
McCain was happy enough to get to the Senate floor that he sarcastically put the price tag at "$8 trillion" and called it "the biggest money-grab ever" -- all tongue in cheek, of course.
Despite the opposition, though, the legislation puts lawmakers in an uncomfortable position. If they oppose the bill, they appear to side with the tobacco industry over the goal of reducing teen smoking.
Some opponents of McCain's proposal are working to craft a substitute that more closely follows the original $368.5 billion agreement between the tobacco industry, state attorneys general, health activists and private attorneys.
That agreement spurred lawmakers to craft a bill, but when the price tag shot up, tobacco executives denounced it and pulled out of the negotiations.
CNN's Mike Roselli and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
News
White