Congressional advocates said they expected the bill to pass the House by a veto-proof margin. On the Senate side more than 30 senators have signed on. Senators said yesterday that they could not predict whether President Bush would sign the bill if it passes chambers.
Philip Morris and RJR don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on the subject:
With smoking on the decline, cigarette-makers have been battling over their share of a shrinking market. Phillip Morris USA, the leading cigarette-maker, favors controls over advertising and marketing because such controls would help preserve their dominant share.
“FDA regulation creates a uniform set of federal standards for the manufacture and marketing of all tobacco products,” Michael Szymanczyk, the chairman and chief executive of Philip Morris USA, said in a statement. “This legislation will deliver its greatest benefits to tobacco consumers by providing a new framework within which manufacturers can focus on reducing the harm of their products.”
In the past, Reynolds, the country’s No. 2 cigarette-maker, has opposed any further federal oversight. But in a statement yesterday, the company said that it favors establishing “sound, cooperative, workable national policies.”
David Howard, a Reynolds spokesman, said that the manufacturer would oppose regulations with “restrictions that don’t enable us to effectively communicate with adult tobacco consumers, letting them know what makes our products different and possibly better. It would be giving an unfair competitive advantage to the marketplace leader.”
I agree with Sen. Richard Burr:
“Tobacco is the most regulated legal product sold in America. I could dare say that the FDA is the only (federal agency) that doesn’t have a slice of it.”
