OCR Text |
Show Hinckley Journal of Politics Autumn 1998 Tobacco Legislation: Through the Thicket of Special Interests Senator Orrin G. Hatch There is little question that youth smoking is a profound and costly problem, whose incidence is on the rise in virtually every state across this nation. For years, neither the American people nor their elected representatives have possessed the will to change that situation, despite alarming statistics indicating that 3000 children start smoking each day. Many in the popular media believe that Congress avoids tobacco issues because of large industry donations to politicians sympathetic to their views. That media overgeneraliza-tion belies an important set of factors. The government's collective failure to get tough on tobacco is true for many reasons, prominent among them the fact that growing, marketing and using tobacco products has been a way of American life since this country began. Today, almost 50 million people in our country use tobacco products, many of them at the lower-end of the economic scale. Many others' lives are affected profoundly by the tobacco industry. To mention a few, the list would include: tobacco farmers and the communities in which they reside; convenience store owners and their employees, who derive a goodly percentage of their income from cigarette sales; participants in large pension plans which have considerable holdings in once-profitable tobacco stocks; and advertisers. Our prospects for changing government's "laissez-faire" attitude toward tobacco dramatically changed on June 20, 1997, when a courageous cadre of State Attorneys General announced that they had hammered the tobacco industry into agreement on a bold new initiative to reduce teen smoking. Although that proposed global tobacco settlement is sometimes denounced as a "giveaway" to industry, serious study of its provisions indicates quite the contrary. In fact, its stringent financial penalties could ring the death knell for the tobacco industry in America. Following hours and hours of review of this issue, including eight hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have concluded that it is abundantly clear the proposal put forth by 40 States almost a year ago represents the best chance we have had in a generation to curb the widespread use of an extremely deadly, addictive product which is seriously harming our youth and literally shortening their lives. I believe that the framework of that settlement should provide the basis for comprehensive anti-addiction, anti-tobacco legislation which can be enacted this year. After consultation with other leading Committee Chairs in the Senate, with House members, and with the Administration, I have developed a core set of 10 essential elements which I believe should be included in any bill. First of all, we should aim for anti-tobacco legislation which is comprehensive in nature. Public health experts have testified that such a thorough, wide-ranging approach has the best chance of being successful in combating tobacco use. Second, the legislation should include flexible, community-based funding for public health programs, such as tobacco use prevention and cessation and counter-advertising. Third, it must contain broad, constitutionally-permissible mechanisms to limit advertising which are a key ingredient in any successful anti-tobacco use program. Fourth, the program must also include well-defined liability limitations, including settlement of the State and local suits. Although this has been widely criticized as being unwise, unachievable, a "giveaway," or all of the above, it is not. In addition, fifth, the bill must include substantial new funding for biomedical research which is really the key to discovering why people use addictive substances like tobacco, and how to treat the numerous harmful effects of its use such as cardiovascular disease and stroke. Sixth, we should insert a new program to transition farmers to non-tobacco-related livelihoods. There is virtually no opposition to this idea in Congress or the Administration. Seventh, an essential component is inclusion of a strong mechanism to ensure continued oversight of the tobacco industry, such as the "look-back" penalties included in the June 20 proposal. Without that oversight, we run the risk of allowing an industry which has knowingly marketed its harmful products to our youth to continue to play its dirty tricks. That would be unconscionable. And eighth, although I believe that current legal authority for FDA regulation of tobacco products is at best murky, I would not be opposed to inclusion in a comprehensive bill of a provision allowing the agency jurisdiction in this area. I believe any FDA provision should be drafted as a new section '93 |