[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 114 (Wednesday, September 3, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H6758-H6760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 2160, AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, 
FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  1998

  Mr. SKEEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2160) making appropriations for 
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and 
Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
1998, and for other purposes, with Senate amendments thereto, disagree 
to the Senate amendments, and agree to the conference asked by the 
Senate.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen]?
  There was no objection.


                Motion to Instruct Offered By Ms. Kaptur

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Ms. Kaptur moves that the managers on the part of the House 
     at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses 
     on the bill H.R. 2160, be instructed to recede to the Senate 
     regarding funding levels provided under the Food and Drug 
     Administration for the program to prevent the use of tobacco 
     products by minors.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
Ohio [Ms. Kaptur], and the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen] will 
each be recognized for 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur].
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to revise and extend her 
remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, the motion I offer today instructs the 
conferees on the fiscal year 1998 Agriculture Appropriations Act to 
agree to the higher funding levels provided by the Senate for the Food 
and Drug Administration's Youth Tobacco Initiative.
  Just this morning, Mr. Speaker, the Senate agreed to provide $34 
million, which was the full budget request, for the Food and Drug 
Administration Program to assist our States in enforcement and outreach 
efforts related to rules to prevent children, our children, from 
purchasing tobacco as minors.
  The House bill included $24 million for this important program, and 
originally the Senate had only provided $4.9 million. But this morning, 
in an act of great wisdom, the Senate, on an amendment that was voiced 
after substantial approval was given and a motion to table defeated, 
voted in the Senate to raise the level to $34 million, which was the 
full budget request.
  Mr. Speaker, our bill here in the House included $24 million for this 
important program. Our motion would simply instruct our House conferees 
to agree to the funding levels for the Food and Drug Administration 
provided by the Senate, therefore, fully funding this important 
initiative to protect our Nation's children.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not need to point out, I suppose, that nearly 90 
percent of adult smokers in our country began doing so before the age 
of 18. In fact, at current rates, more than 5 million children under 
age 18 who are alive today will be killed by smoking-related diseases. 
So we are talking about the lives of millions of our children.
  We know that every year more than $1 billion in tobacco products are 
illegally sold to minors. I underline ``illegally'' sold to minors in 
this country. And as much as $50 billion is spent every year in our 
country on smoking-related medical care.
  Providing $34 million, $10 million more than in the House agreement 
but meeting the full budget request, will help our States set up 
enforcement programs and educate retailers and the public on the new 
Food and Drug Administration youth tobacco rules. It seems to me this 
is the least we can do to protect our country's future and our 
children.
  I urge my colleagues to support this motion, and I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. SKEEN. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to the gentlewoman from 
Ohio [Ms. Kaptur], I concur that this is a very important issue for all 
of us. I share the gentlewoman's concern, but we have many differences 
in these two bills, and I strongly believe that the House should not, 
should not be instructing its conferees to accept a Senate position on 
any issue before the conference has even begun.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

[[Page H6759]]

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro], a distinguished member of the Committee on 
Appropriations.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the motion to 
instruct conferees to fully fund the FDA's program to crack down on 
illegal tobacco sales to minors. I appreciate the assistance of 
Chairman Skeen and other members of the subcommittee in providing $24 
million for this important initiative in the House bill. But I hope 
that in conference that we can join the Senate and provide the entire 
$34 million needed to stop our youngsters from taking up smoking and 
becoming addicted.
  Facts of underage tobacco use are undisputed. Every single day 3,000 
young people under the age of 18 who cannot even buy tobacco legally, 
become regular smokers. Selling tobacco to minors is illegal in all 50 
States, but studies show that children can buy tobacco 67 percent of 
the time. What does this teach our children? It teaches them to smoke 
and it also teaches them that there are no penalties for breaking the 
law.
  The FDA plan will help retailers understand and comply with the law. 
It enables strict enforcement by checking that stores require people 
who look younger than age 27 show an ID card before they buy 
cigarettes. It is a perfectly legitimate practice with regard to the 
sale of alcohol. It is an enforcement mechanism, it is an outreach 
mechanism, and it does not set up any, and I repeat, it does not set up 
any new government bureaucracy.

                              {time}  1745

  Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that 83 percent of the 
Members of the other body who took tobacco money last year voted 
against fully funding this provision. I would like to think that 
Members of this body today will be voting on this motion based on what 
is best for America's children and not on what is best for their 
campaign coffers.
  Frankly, the tobacco industry has no reason to oppose this motion 
because this money all goes toward endorsing current law. This is no 
new law that is being talked about. But perhaps because 90 percent of 
all smokers start the habit by age 18, the tobacco companies are 
concerned that cracking down on youth smoking will hurt their 
businesses.
  I would be ashamed if any Member of this body voted against this 
resolution as payback for a campaign contribution. This motion is about 
saving lives. Investing a small amount in prevention today is going to 
yield enormous savings down the road, not only in dollars for reduced 
medical costs but in the lives of our young people who can be saved.
  I urge my colleagues to support the motion to instruct.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I just wanted to mention that for Members who are listening on the 
floor or maybe listening to these remarks over their televisions in 
their offices, if you look at the budget issue involved here, and I 
wanted to place this on the record because it is important, voting for 
this motion to instruct is a very responsible vote.
  Both the House and the Senate have decided within their respective 
appropriations committees for different marks, different funding levels 
for agriculture functions. In the Senate, the Agriculture Subcommittee 
allocations were much higher than in the House. In fact, they have $30 
million more in budget authority and over $200 million more in outlays. 
As we go to conference, we have to conference on that as well.
  So I want to assure my colleagues that the flexibility within the 
budget exists and we are not asking for anything unreasonable in this 
motion to instruct. We are again asking our House colleagues to agree 
with what the Senate has done and to instruct our conferees to agree to 
the $34 million youth tobacco prevention initiative.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. 
Jackson-Lee].
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for 
her leadership and advocacy of this issue. I recognize the sensitivity 
of the chairman as well, but would respectfully disagree. I would 
respectfully disagree with the approach. It is vital and imperative 
that this motion to instruct conferees is passed by this body.
  There is a whole lot of barking going around about what we intend to 
do about preventing children from engaging in the beginning of tobacco 
use, or smoking, but there is not a lot of bite. This is a simple 
instruction that simply provides the bite that is needed to ensure that 
we provide the enforcement and the education to our retailers around 
this Nation.
  One of the failings that brought about this intense increase in 
cigarette smoking by our young people is that in the highways and 
byways and the rural communities and urban centers, there has been no 
incentive on the part of our retailers to stop that young person who 
comes in, approaches that cigarette, or to keep them from going to the 
cigarette machine; and what we have now is a $50 billion smoking-
related medical care cost. This does not make sense.
  All we are asking for our House Members to do is to be in sync with 
the Senate so that there is not a dilemma in conference, there is not 
confusion in conference, there is not disagreement in conference, that 
we would join in and support the $37 billion that the Senate has 
approved so we can put some action behind our words, put your money 
where your mouth is and that is not in your pocket. That is to ensure 
that there is enforcement and education.
  Every time I go into my schools, whether we are talking about 
prevention of HIV, whether we are talking about understanding of one's 
ability to know how to interact and to be able to use one's sexual 
intensity properly, it is all about educating our young people. It is 
all about being forthright. It makes no sense whatsoever that we would 
not want to support this motion to instruct conferees to put some bite 
in our bark, to ensure that the 3,000 young people under the age of 18 
who get cigarettes every day are educated properly and these laws are 
enforced.
  We need to provide the bite for the Food and Drug Administration. 
This is a sensible, intelligent, forthright motion to instruct 
conferees.
  I would be incensed, and I think the American people would not 
understand why the House would be backtracking from a so-called 
commitment to ensure that the Food and Drug Administration has all of 
the tools that it should have to make sure that we see this siege upon 
our young people in America prevented and we educate them toward good 
health and to stop the smoking that has infiltrated their young lives 
and caused devastating health impact in their late lives.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I urge a ``yes'' vote on the motion to instruct conferees so that we 
can go to the conference with a strong position from both the House and 
the Senate and really do something for the young people of this country 
and help prevent additional addiction which will cost millions of lives 
in the future and billions of dollars. Let us do what is right for our 
children and give them a helping hand.
  I urge a ``yes'' vote on the motion to instruct conferees.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SKEEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Let me summarize this issue for my colleagues, if I might. Currently 
the House has $24.3 million for new tobacco regulations. In an action 
today, the Senate provided $34 million for the same purpose. I am not, 
I repeat, I am not opposed to providing funds for regulating tobacco, 
but there has been no resolution of the differences in the allocations 
of the House and the Senate. The Senate allocation is $200 million more 
than the House. Until that is resolved, I do not believe that we should 
be issuing instructions to conferees to go to numbers higher than the 
House allocation can support.
  I urge the defeat of the motion to instruct.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Snowbarger). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct

[[Page H6760]]

offered by the gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur].
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the noes appeared to have it.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 299, 
nays 125, not voting 9, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 353]

                               YEAS--299

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Allen
     Andrews
     Bachus
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (NE)
     Barrett (WI)
     Barton
     Bass
     Becerra
     Bentsen
     Bereuter
     Berman
     Berry
     Bilirakis
     Bishop
     Blagojevich
     Blumenauer
     Boehlert
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boswell
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Bryant
     Calvert
     Camp
     Campbell
     Canady
     Cannon
     Capps
     Cardin
     Carson
     Castle
     Chabot
     Christensen
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Condit
     Conyers
     Cook
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cummings
     Danner
     Davis (FL)
     Davis (IL)
     Davis (VA)
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delahunt
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Duncan
     Edwards
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     Engel
     English
     Ensign
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Ewing
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fawell
     Fazio
     Filner
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Foley
     Forbes
     Ford
     Fowler
     Fox
     Frank (MA)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frost
     Furse
     Ganske
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gilman
     Goodling
     Gordon
     Goss
     Green
     Greenwood
     Gutierrez
     Gutknecht
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Hansen
     Harman
     Hastert
     Hastings (FL)
     Hayworth
     Hill
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hinojosa
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Holden
     Hooley
     Horn
     Houghton
     Hoyer
     Hulshof
     Hutchinson
     Istook
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson-Lee (TX)
     Jefferson
     John
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (WI)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kilpatrick
     Kind (WI)
     King (NY)
     Kleczka
     Klink
     Klug
     Kolbe
     Kucinich
     LaFalce
     LaHood
     Lampson
     LaTourette
     Lazio
     Leach
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Linder
     Lipinski
     LoBiondo
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney (CT)
     Maloney (NY)
     Manton
     Manzullo
     Markey
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy (MO)
     McCarthy (NY)
     McDade
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McHale
     McHugh
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Menendez
     Metcalf
     Millender-McDonald
     Miller (CA)
     Miller (FL)
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Moran (KS)
     Moran (VA)
     Morella
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Neal
     Neumann
     Ney
     Nussle
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Owens
     Oxley
     Pallone
     Pappas
     Pascrell
     Pastor
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Peterson (MN)
     Peterson (PA)
     Petri
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Portman
     Poshard
     Pryce (OH)
     Quinn
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Regula
     Reyes
     Riggs
     Rivers
     Rodriguez
     Roemer
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Rothman
     Roukema
     Roybal-Allard
     Royce
     Sabo
     Salmon
     Sanchez
     Sanders
     Sandlin
     Sawyer
     Saxton
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sensenbrenner
     Serrano
     Shaw
     Shays
     Sherman
     Shimkus
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith, Adam
     Snyder
     Spratt
     Stabenow
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Stokes
     Strickland
     Stupak
     Sununu
     Talent
     Tanner
     Tauscher
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Thompson
     Thune
     Thurman
     Tiahrt
     Tierney
     Torres
     Traficant
     Turner
     Upton
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Wamp
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Weldon (PA)
     Wexler
     Weygand
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wynn
     Yates
     Young (FL)

                               NAYS--125

     Aderholt
     Archer
     Armey
     Baesler
     Baker
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Bartlett
     Bateman
     Bilbray
     Bliley
     Blunt
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Boucher
     Boyd
     Brady
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins
     Combest
     Cooksey
     Cox
     Crane
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Deal
     DeLay
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dreier
     Dunn
     Etheridge
     Everett
     Gallegly
     Gekas
     Gillmor
     Goode
     Goodlatte
     Graham
     Granger
     Hastings (WA)
     Hefley
     Hefner
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hostettler
     Hunter
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Jenkins
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kim
     Kingston
     Knollenberg
     Largent
     Latham
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Livingston
     Lucas
     McCrery
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McIntyre
     McKeon
     Mica
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Northup
     Norwood
     Packard
     Parker
     Paul
     Paxon
     Pease
     Pickering
     Pitts
     Pombo
     Price (NC)
     Radanovich
     Redmond
     Riley
     Rogan
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ryun
     Sanford
     Scarborough
     Schaefer, Dan
     Schaffer, Bob
     Sessions
     Shadegg
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Smith (OR)
     Smith, Linda
     Snowbarger
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stump
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Walsh
     Watkins
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (AK)

                             NOT VOTING--9

     Clay
     Dixon
     Gonzalez
     Hall (OH)
     Lantos
     McCollum
     Rush
     Schiff
     Towns

                              {time}  1813

  Mr. PAXON changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Messrs. Porter, Calvert, Tiahrt, Bass, Bilirakis, Ewing, Hutchinson, 
Metcalf, Wamp, Talent, Mrs. Emerson, and Messrs. Shimkus, Barrett of 
Nebraska, LaHood and Hulshof changed their vote from ``nay'' to 
``yea.''
  So the motion to instruct was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                              {time}  1815

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Snowbarger). Without objection, the 
Chair appoints the following conferees: Messrs. Skeen, Walsh, Dickey, 
Kingston, Nethercutt, Bonilla, Latham, Livingston, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. 
Fazio of California, Mr. Serrano, Ms. DeLauro, and Mr. Obey.
  There was no objection.

                          ____________________