Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 13, 2004)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 710 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the further consideration of the bill, H.R. 4766.

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak in support of this amendment and against the fleecing of the American taxpayer. At this time in our country's history, with soaring deficits, a soaring national debt, and, at the same time, a soaring understanding of the harmful consequences of tobacco, that almost everything tobacco and tobacco smoke touches is harmed, at this time the very notion that the Congress would contemplate taking $10 billion, that is billion with a B, $10 billion of taxpayer money and using it to set up a new welfare program for the tobacco industry would be absolutely ludicrous if it were not being seriously considered in this Congress; in fact, considered so seriously that the House has it tucked away in a piece of legislation that has already passed this body and gone to a conference committee.

That is why today's action is so important, because this is the first opportunity that the House has had an opportunity up or down to speak to the wisdom of taking $10 billion out of the taxpayers' pocket, not to improve public health, not to reduce the deficit, not to reach out and quiet the concern of millions of mothers whose children lack health insurance or to provide assistance to millions of young people who, if they had a doubling of their Pell Grant, would be able to go to college. No, to reach out and take that $10 billion not for any of those well-defined and worthy purposes but to take that $10 billion and create a new welfare program.

Who will get the benefit of that welfare? Well, there has been a recent study of that, and we learned that 354,000 people who would be eligible for this new benefit would get about $1,000 a year out of the program; but that two-thirds of the benefit would go to 10 percent of those who are eligible. One company in Kentucky would get $8 million.

This is a new welfare program where all the welfare goes to the people at the top and the fellow with the beat-up pickup truck, who some have claimed here today will somehow benefit from that program, is not going to get very much at all. Who will benefit from this program before us is the big tobacco companies. Because the big tobacco companies will now have a larger supply of tobacco; it will be grown in any State in the Nation; they will have cheaper tobacco as a result of this. And to anyone who says it is not about smoking, I would say this amendment is all about smoking. It is about smoking a $10 billion hole in the wallet of the American taxpayer that the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) is speaking out against, and it is about the danger that smoking poses to millions of young people and to all of those around them as they become addicted to nicotine.

We attempted to deal with this issue in the Committee on Ways and Means and were denied any opportunity to raise the amendment. The gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) and I offered an amendment to the Committee on Rules and were denied any opportunity to consider this. The only reason that this ludicrous welfare program has gotten to this point is through deceit; and today, this amendment attempts to break through the deceit and get at a new plan, a new entitlement program that would pull billions from the American taxpayers and do harm to American health. The gentleman from Arizona attempts to get at that program and put a stop to it once and for all, drive a stake through this very bad idea in which we get no advances in public health, no increased wealth for the Food and Drug Administration, but simply a draw on the American taxpayer.

In short, it is not a job-creation bill for any part of the country; it is a disease-creation proposal that he seeks to put a stop to.