[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 26 (Thursday, March 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1814-S1815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TOBACCO LEGISLATION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, at the outset I would like to say to my 
colleagues in the Senate and those who are witnessing this Chamber this 
morning that we have a unique opportunity this year to do something of 
value not only for the children of this country but for many others. It 
relates to an issue that I have been involved in for over 10 years. It 
started a little over 10 years ago when as a Congressman from Illinois 
I was about to catch an airplane in Phoenix, AZ, to Chicago, but, as 
usual, I was late. I came rushing into the airport in Phoenix, AZ, put 
my ticket on the counter of United Airlines, and said to the flight 
attendant, ``Can I make this plane?'' She punched it into the computer 
and said, ``You can if you hurry.'' I said, ``Can you get me a seat in 
the nonsmoking section?'' She punched it into the computer, and said, 
``No. I am sorry. It is too late. The only seat we have is a middle 
seat in the smoking section.'' I looked at her, and I said, ``I know I 
am in a hurry, but isn't there something you can do?'' She looked at my 
ticket, and she looked at my title, and she looked me in the eye, and 
said, ``No; but, Congressman, there is something you can do.''
  So I got on that airplane and flew from Phoenix to Chicago seated 
between two sumo wrestlers chain smoking the whole way. I turned my air 
vents on, one and then the other, and realized when I got off that 
plane that my clothes were stinking, my sinuses were clogged, and I was 
grumpy. But I still would be alive. I looked a couple of rows away and 
saw a woman with a tiny baby and, on the other side of the plane, an 
elderly person. I thought to myself, this doesn't make any sense at 
all. Why do we let people smoke away in the cabin of an airplane and 
endanger the health and lives of other people?
  So I came to Washington and in 1987 introduced legislation to ban 
smoking on airplanes. I never dreamed that it would be successful. In 
fact, it was the first time in its history that the tobacco lobby had 
lost a major vote on the regulation of their product on the floor of 
the House of Representatives. It was a bipartisan effort. I never would 
have succeeded without the intervention of Senator Claude Pepper, who 
was chairman of the House Rules Committee, my friend; and Mike Synar, 
the late Congressman from Oklahoma; Henry Waxman of California, and 
some others.
  It really started in my political career an effort to take a close 
look at tobacco. Now, almost 11 years later, that wave that was just 
starting to rise in 1987 is about to crest in 1998. We have a chance 
now to not just deal with the annoyance and danger of secondhand smoke 
but something much, much bigger. We have a chance to enact legislation 
in 1998 that will dramatically change, in America, our view of tobacco 
as a product for sale. If we are successful, if we do our job, we will 
finally say that the law in every State in the Nation which bans the 
sale of tobacco products to children will be enforced. What a 
breakthrough that would be for us to finally come to grips with the 
fact that these tobacco companies with their insidious strategy and 
their advertising have been going after our kids. That is it.
  They lose 2 million of their best smokers each year; 400,000 die from 
tobacco-related diseases, and 1.5 million or so quit. Well, if you are 
in the corporate board room of RJR or Philip Morris, you say, ``I have 
a problem. Two million customers gone. We have to replace these 
customers. Where are we going to go?''
  Well, we found out as we have surveyed that when a person reaches the 
age of 18 and beyond, they are less likely to decide for the first time 
to smoke. They are a little more mature. They know the danger, and they 
stay away from it. But these corporate leaders in the tobacco companies 
know that if they can get kids to start smoking, they might have 
customers for life, albeit an abbreviated life for many smokers.
  So we see Joe Camel, we see Marlboro's cancer cowboy, and we see all 
these efforts to glamorize tobacco. For what purpose? Ultimately so the 
children will try to smoke. Oh, these tobacco companies do a great job. 
You know what happens? Every single day in America 3,000 kids start 
smoking for the first time. A third of them, 1,000 of them, will find 
their lives shortened because of that experience. Kids who become 
addicted to nicotine become smokers for life. The tobacco companies 
win. The kids lose. Their parents lose. America loses.
  We have a chance this year to change it. But we may blow that 
opportunity because, unfortunately, this Senate, and the House for that 
matter, have become tangled up in the politics of this issue and can't 
see the forest for the trees. If we miss this chance this year to do 
something about this effort to addict our children, we may never have 
it again.
  The President and Vice President have been leaders on this issue. We 
would not be here today discussing it were it not for President 
Clinton's leadership. And we have seen many others, 42 States' 
attorneys general, who brought lawsuits against the tobacco companies 
and said, now it is time for you to pay for the damage you have caused 
to America by tobacco products; now it is time for you to be held 
accountable for your lies, your fraud, your deception, your advertising 
directly at children.
  So we are here today and the ball is in our court. Will we do 
something about it? Take a look at this. This is the situation. Here is 
the 1998 teen smoking report. How many kids will be hooked today? Three 
thousand. How many kids have been hooked so far this year? Mr. 
President, 213,000. How many

[[Page S1815]]

kids will die too young because Congress has failed to act this year? 
Mr. President, 71,000. How many days are left for Congress to act? 
Sixty-seven days. And the count goes up every single day--more kids 
addicted to nicotine, addicted to tobacco; more kids who will die.
  We are told repeatedly this is a short session; we do not have a lot 
of time here. We have just 67 days and then we have to get back to 
other things. What is more important? What could be more important than 
the lives of our children? What could be more important than this 
opportunity in history for the first time--the very first time--that we 
can do something? Think about it. If we said, as part of our 
legislation, legislation I support, that the tobacco companies have to 
show reductions in kids smoking or they are going to pay more, guess 
what will happen. They will reduce the number of sales to kids. They 
will watch it more carefully. If we say to these tobacco companies that 
we are sick and tired of your insidious advertising at sporting events 
and all sorts of billboards near schools--we know what is going on 
here--it is coming to an end, we can do it; we can do it this year.
  There is more. We also have to take the money that will come from 
this effort--from additional fees, for example, on tobacco products--
and make sure that it is well spent on antitobacco advertising, on 
medical research, and on so many other things the President has 
suggested.
  The President wants to take these funds and put them into the basics, 
make sure there is money for education, make sure there is money for 
child care, make sure there is money at the NIH for medical research. 
This is money that is well spent and well invested. But we can miss 
this opportunity. We can find ourselves twisted in knots. 
Unfortunately, we may find, if that occurs, we may never have this 
chance again.
  Today is March 12; there are 67 days left on Capitol Hill to take 
action on an antitobacco bill. If we are going to do this, the Senate 
needs to finish up its work on this bill by Memorial Day and no later. 
There are 3,000 reasons each day to pass this legislation--the 3,000 
kids who start smoking for the first time. There are no good reasons 
not to. When you count the days and you count the kids and you count 
the cost, I think you understand the gravity of this situation. We have 
offered comprehensive legislation. I hope we can count on our friends 
on the other side of the aisle to join us.
  Yesterday the committee hearings focused on details of tobacco 
legislation--immunity, liability, committee jurisdiction--but it is 
time to bring the focus back where it belongs. This is not about the 
details of the legislative process, it is about our children. Let's 
send a bill to President Clinton that he can sign. We certainly owe it 
to America's kids to stop stalling and start saving lives.

                          ____________________