Sen. Richard Burr plans to fight FDA regulation of cigarettes through whatever means possible:
In an interview in his Senate office Thursday, Burr said that his legislation would come about only if he is not able to reach a compromise with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the main sponsor of the FDA bill. “We can adopt 80, 85, maybe 90 percent of everything Ted Kennedy has in his bill, just do it in a different way,” Burr said.
….Under his proposal, Burr would like to see regulation of tobacco distributed among various federal agencies. For example, the Federal Trade Commission would be responsible for labeling of products; the U.S. Department of Agriculture would be in charge of the products as they are developed on the farm; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in charge of toxicology and epidemiology studies.
Under Kennedy’s bill, all of these regulations would be under the jurisdiction of the FDA. Burr believes that these agencies are already responsible for the various regulations the Kennedy bill would implement, and does not see how giving the authority to the FDA would improve or enhance the process.
…He acknowledged that he did not have the 40 votes necessary to mount a filibuster, should Kennedy’s bill reach the floor, but promised to make the pro-cess very difficult, if his concerns are not discussed.
“I can’t block it from being considered. I can’t block it from moving forward. Can I filibuster it by eating a tremendous amount of time and testing the will of the leadership of the Senate and the membership? Yes … the rules of the Senate allow me to call votes on every step of the way,” he said.
Interesting, too, that FDA regulation of cigarettes might not have have the desired result:
Last month in an interview with The Associated Press, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, the new FDA commissioner, indicated that giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco might have unintended consequences. He cautioned that giving the agency the authority to reduce the nicotine levels in cigarettes might backfire, because less nicotine in a cigarette could lead toward more cigarettes smoked.
“We could find ourselves in the conundrum of having made a decision about nicotine only to have made the public health radically worse. And that is not the position FDA is in; we approve products that enhance health, not destroy it,” said von Eschenbach, a urologic surgeon and oncologist who was confirmed as FDA commissioner in December.
