American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004
Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator from Ohio. I don't know how much time is remaining. I don't want to take too much.
Mr. DeWINE. I inquire of the Chair how much time remains.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Thirteen minutes remain.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I say to my colleagues, the Chair, and to my colleagues in the Chamber, I have only had one Senator come to me requesting time in opposition. I probably would propound a unanimous consent request to take some time from the opposition with the understanding that-I have not done that yet-anyone who wants to speak in opposition, obviously, we would make that time available.
I yield 10 minutes to my colleague from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Ohio and the Senator from Massachusetts for their leadership.
This is an issue which hits close to home for many Americans. It is an issue we have faced in our families where people we dearly love have been victims of tobacco-related disease. It is an issue which we face every day in America when children make the decision to start using tobacco products-either spit tobacco or cigarettes-and become addicted, and one out of every three of those children who choose the addiction will die from it. That is a reality.
Tobacco is still the No. 1 preventable cause of death in America today. It is preventable if we do our job, regulating the product.
The bill before the Senate says we will give to the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco. The Food and Drug Administration operates under a law which specifically excludes tobacco. It said tobacco is neither a food nor a drug. It falls between the cracks.
So the Food and Drug Administration has the responsibility, when it comes to macaroni and cheese, to make sure it is wholesome, to make certain it is safe, but it does not have that same opportunity or authority when it comes to Marlboro cigarettes or any other package of cigarettes. When you look at the back of the macaroni and cheese, it states the contents and ingredients. You can look all over the Marlboro cigarette package and you will never figure out what is in it. It is more than just natural tobacco. There are a lot of chemicals in here, and these chemicals are harmful.
What Senator DeWine and Senator Kennedy do today is to call us together and say, finally, after so many years-40 years of being convinced that tobacco causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung problems-after all these years we are going to give to the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate this product.
This is not a radical idea. This is common sense. Mr. President, 15 years ago, as a Member of the House of Representatives, I offered an amendment to ban smoking on airplanes. It was an amendment that was opposed by the tobacco lobby, opposed by the leadership, Democrat and Republican, in the House of Representatives, and no one thought I had a chance. But I won, and I passed it. It became the law of the land. Now, if you went into an airplane and said: "Incidentally, we decided to change the rules. Anybody who wants to smoke, go ahead," people would just stand up and say: "Are you crazy? Secondhand smoke can kill you. We're not going back to those old days."
What Senator DeWine and Senator Kennedy are doing is telling us: Look forward to a future where we start making commonsense health decisions that are going to save the lives of millions of Americans.
Now, what is going on politically here? Sadly, there is an effort coming out of the House of Representatives to put together an $8 or $9 billion buyout of those who have tobacco allotments in America. It is an old piece of agricultural law that some people were able to claim the right to grow tobacco and be given a Government allotment. It is the closest thing to being given some title or royalty that you can imagine because those folks are then entitled to grow tobacco and have special treatment under the law.
What they have said is, if we want to end this program, you have to pay us to end it. We have made money over the years with it, but you have to pay us to end it, $8 or $9 billion.
Well, I swallow hard when I think about that notion of giving $8 or $9 billion from hard-working taxpayers across America to these tobacco growers. But I finally was brought to the conclusion that if that is the only way we can get FDA regulation of tobacco products in America, all right, I will buy that compromise. It is a painful compromise to think of that much money, but that is the reality.
What we have today with this proposal from Senator Kennedy and Senator DeWine is to move us in the direction of what we need: to put into FDA law the power to regulate tobacco; for the first time in our history, to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to restrict tobacco advertising.
Cross the border into Canada and look at a package of cigarettes. There is a clear warning-not the worthless warnings we have been stuck with for four decades-clear warnings that might give somebody some pause before buying this dangerous product. Our FDA ought to have that same authority.
We also need more authority to aggressively stop the sale of these deadly tobacco products to our kids. The Food and Drug Administration can do that, but they need the authority to do that.
We also need to make sure the Food and Drug Administration has stronger warning labels that prevent the tobacco industry from making terrible misrepresentations about their product.
Do you remember "light" cigarettes-lower in tar, lower in nicotine, and so forth? It turns out it was a complete fraud on the public. A class action lawsuit brought against the tobacco companies disclosed that they knew they were lying to the American consumers but did it anyway. They made so much money at it they were going to do it anyway.
Well, they were nailed with a lawsuit that a lot of people are talking about. But it is because of their deliberate misrepresentations about the facts of their product that they were nailed by this lawsuit.
The passage of this law gives the Food and Drug Administration the right to police tobacco advertising, to make certain they do not lie and mislead American consumers.
It also sets standards for reduced-risk products. There is a lot of research going on here. I do not know if it will lead to anything positive, but it leads us in the right direction, as far as I am concerned.
I know there are others on the floor who want to speak. I am happy to cosponsor this measure. I believe this is a historic moment that the Senate has a chance to acknowledge what the tobacco companies themselves have acknowledged. When they entered into an agreement with the States' attorneys general across America, they acknowledged that the Food and Drug Administration needed to have the authority to regulate their product. A major company, Philip Morris, has come forward and said they accept that. They are prepared to accept this proposal from Senator DeWine and Senator Kennedy. Now we have a chance to put it in law.
What we are going to do with this legislation is save lives in America. We are going to reduce the incidence of pulmonary disease, the incidence of disease and stroke and heart attack and death associated with tobacco.
If we did nothing else in this session-and we may do nothing else-this is the single most important thing we can do to make America a healthier place and to give our kids a fighting chance. I stand in strong support of this proposal by Senator Kennedy and Senator DeWine.
I yield the floor.