Senate Kills Tobacco Bill
Disappointed Democrats say they will continue to fight for anti-teen smoking legislation
WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, June 17) -- Republicans angry about the size and scope of the $516 billion tobacco bill succeeded Wednesday in killing the measure by first refusing to cut off debate and then sending it back to committee. On both votes, supporters fell short of the 60 votes they needed.
"It is a sorry mess," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who orchestrated the showdown after 3 1/2 weeks of fierce debate. "We are stalled out with no end in sight."
The move to end debate on the bill went down on a 57-42 vote, with 60 necessary to pass. The point of order, holding the bill in violation of last year's budget agreement, was upheld in a 53-46 vote, seven votes short. That vote pushed the bill back into committee.
The outcome represented a defeat for the Clinton Administration and a victory for the tobacco industry, which spent heavily on advertising portraying the measure as a tax increase first and foremost.
House GOP sources told CNN Wednesday that Republican leaders in the House had appealed to Sen. Lott to keep the bill from passing the Senate, to make it harder for Democrats to use tobacco as an issue against vulnerable House Republicans in this fall's elections.
Lott, however, stressed that the move was an effort to assess the progress of Senate negotiations on the bill. "I think we need to see where we are," said Lott.
The Republican leader argued that after more than 80 hours of discussion, the legislation was going nowhere, and it was time to move on to other matters before the Senate.
Lott said that the tobacco bill had gone "far, far afield" from its original aim of reducing teen smoking.
"We've lost sight of the original noble cause of just dealing with teenage smoking and drug abuse," he said.
"A lot of people think this is a cookie jar," Lott said, referring to amendments that have been tacked on to the bill in the last month of negotiations. He said lawmakers had rushed to add programs that could not be financed under the budget onto the tobacco bill.
Opponents noted that many of those amendments had been proposed by the Republicans themselves, questioning why Lott had suddenly invoked budget concerns.
"The party that put the amendments on the bill now wants to kill it," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said.
President Bill Clinton expressed his disappointment with the vote, and joined Democratic leaders in saying he won't stop pushing for anti-smoking legislation. (384K wav sound)
"I want the tobacco lobby and its allies on Capitol Hill to
know that, from my point of view, this battle is far from over," said Clinton. (224K wav sound)
The late afternoon Senate votes followed a closed-door GOP strategy session Wednesday morning. After leaving that meeting with 50 Republican senators, Lott told reporters, "No decisions made."
Before the vote, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told CNN, "If this bill fails, have no doubt, the tobacco companies win and the children of America lose." McCain was the author of the bill.
Earlier Wednesday, Clinton had urged Republican senators to work for the bill and not turn their morning strategy session "into, literally, a smoke-filled room." Citing concessions on Republican issues such as tax cuts and anti-drug programs, Clinton said Democrats had been willing to work toward compromise on the legislation.
"Now, if there is a move to kill or gut this legislation, there can be no possible explanation other than the intense pressure and the awesome influence fueled by years of huge contributions of 'Big Tobacco,'" Clinton said.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle told reporters Wednesday morning he believed the bill would pass the Senate. "We will do all we have to to make sure it remains the issue of the day," Daschle said.
Lott's action on the bill came only one week after he called the legislation "dead in the water." Partisan compromises on tax cuts and anti-drug programs have made the bill more palatable to some Senate Republicans. Lawmakers voted last Wednesday to include tax breaks for married couples earning less than $50,000 and money for anti-illegal drug campaigns, and the bill has been making progress since.
A limit on attorneys' fees
The latest progress came on Tuesday, when the Senate voted 49-48 to limit lawyers' fees in tobacco litigation. The third attempt by Republicans to limit lawyers' fees, Tuesday's narrow vote settled on Sen. Slade Gorton's (R-Wash.) amendment, which proposes a sliding scale of limitations.
The amendment set limits of $4,000 per hour for lawyers involved in early tobacco suits, which carried more financial risk for lawyers. The $4,000 ceiling applies to suits filed before Dec. 31, 1994. A $2,000-per-hour fee limit was agreed upon for cases filed between January 1995 and April 1, 1997. Lawyers filing after that date and before Monday would have been limited to charging $1,000 an hour. And those filing after Monday would have faced a $500 ceiling.
The limits were a compromise between business-backed Republicans who want to see lawyers' fees limited in class-action suits and Democrats who did not want to penalize lawyers who took early risks in tobacco suits. Democrats, traditionally backed by trial lawyers, said early prosecutors were the pioneers of the tobacco legislation and as such, should not be financially penalized.
Many conservatives in the Senate had doubts about the bill's feasibility. "A lot of us don't think it is salvageable," Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) told The Associated Press. Nickles is the Senate's second-ranking Republican.
Opponents in the Senate objected most strongly to proposals in the bill to add a $1.10-a-pack tax to cigarettes and to grant the Food and Drug Administration regulatory powers over cigarettes.
Conservatives in the House were even less supportive of the legislation. House Speaker Newt Gingrich voiced whole-hearted opposition to the plan, which House Republicans saw as too costly to tobacco companies and consumers. They opposed any legislation that will raise cigarette taxes.
Looking ahead to political repercussions
Democrats and some Republicans say those responsible for killing the legislation will feel political repercussions in next fall's elections.
"Personally, I would not like to go into this next election having been responsible for killing a way to address the fact that 3,000 kids start smoking every day and a thousand of them will die earlier," McCain said.
CNN's John King and Gene Randall and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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