Providing For Consideration Of Senate Amendment To H.R. 1256, Family Smoking Prevention And Tobacco Control Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, the tobacco industry has been feeding us a line. In addition to selling tobacco, the industry is now selling us a story. They would have us believe that this bill, which will allow the FDA to regulate their tobacco, will ruin their industry, shut down small farms, and hurt already-hurting farmers who just want to earn a living.

The truth is the tobacco industry has lied for decades about the addictive nature of tobacco. They have targeted our children as prime consumers of their deadly product, and they have produced and marketed a product that is the leading cause of preventible death in the United States, killing an estimated 438,000 people each year.

It is past time to empower the FDA to step up and stop the tobacco companies from continuing to make false claims about tobacco and start telling the truth. For too many years, the tobacco industry has sold us a line. They've attempted to tell us what they're selling, but in reality, the only thing they've been selling us is sickness and death.

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