[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6359-S6361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE TOBACCO BILL
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, let me just say a few words about the
tobacco bill which we have been on here for a couple, 3 weeks now in
the Senate.
In my opinion, this tobacco bill is a historic piece of legislation.
And I have complimented personally the Senator from Arizona, Senator
McCain, for his leadership in the Commerce Committee and here on the
Senate floor in bringing this bill here and pushing for its enactment.
I believe very strongly that when historians look back on the 105th
Congress and ask, What did the 105th Congress accomplish? if we are
able to pass tobacco legislation, significant tobacco legislation, that
will be the single item they will point to as a substantial and major
accomplishment by this Congress. So the time we are spending on this
tobacco bill is time well spent.
I firmly believe that since I have been here in the Senate--and I
have been here now nearly 16 years--during that time there has been a
dramatic change in public opinion on the issue of smoking and tobacco
use in this country, particularly on the issue of young people
beginning to smoke.
What I see this legislation as is an effort to bring our public
policy into line with our public opinion, because public opinion has
changed dramatically. Our public policy has not changed to the same
extent, and we need to get on with the business of changing public
policy to mirror and reflect what the American people want to see done.
That is why the legislation is so important.
We have spent many hours discussing this legislation. We have had
several amendments offered and debated, and several adopted. I think
all of that is to the good. And I think anyone who has watched the
Senate operate for any period of time would have to acknowledge that,
although we have spent substantial time on the tobacco bill, so far we
have not seen a concerted effort by the leadership to bring this issue
to a close, to bring the debate to a close, to get a defined list of
amendments that need to be concluded before we can finish the bill and
move on to another item.
So, clearly, that is our agenda for this week. I believe very
strongly we can finish this bill this week, or certainly if not this
week, we can finish it next week. We owe it to the American people to
do that.
I know there are others in the Senate who have different opinions on
that. We have heard a lot of public statements over the recent weeks
and months about how this bill is dead and how the bill is dead on
arrival. And I have thought, if I had a dollar for every statement that
has been uttered about how this bill is dead, I would be a rich man
today. Mark Twain was famous for his statement that the news reports of
his demise were exaggerated. And I think that the news reports about
this bill being dead are exaggerated as well.
I think there is ample support here in the Senate to pass this bill.
There is ample support in this Senate to pass a strong bill, to send it
to conference, and I hope that there is support in the House of
Representatives to do the same thing. Time will tell whether that turns
out to be the case.
So I believe very strongly we need to go ahead and get a cloture
motion filed again. I hope Senator McCain, the lead sponsor of the
bill, will take that initiative. I think we need to get a defined list
of amendments that still need consideration once that cloture motion is
completed, and then we need to go ahead and conclude action on the
bill.
I believe the best thing we can do for the American people before the
Fourth of July break--and the Fourth of July break will begin the
Friday after this Friday--the most important thing we can do for the
American people is, prior to that date, going ahead and passing this
historic legislation and sending it to conference.
I urge the majority leader to use the power of his position, which is
substantial, to move the bill forward. I compliment all my colleagues
who have voted for cloture in the previous efforts to bring closure to
the debate and to get a limited list of amendments for further
consideration. But I urge everyone, this week, to vote for cloture. I
hope we can get that done. I hope we can pass a bill with a strong
bipartisan vote and send it to conference. I think the American people
will thank us for that action, and we owe that to them.
Mr. DORGAN. I wonder if the Senator from New Mexico would yield?
Mr. BINGAMAN. I am happy to yield to my colleague from North Dakota.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, the Senator from New Mexico makes a point
that I feel strongly about. If we don't finish this product now, if we
don't get a tobacco bill completed in the Senate, in my judgment, we
probably will never get it done.
We have come a long, long ways. We are, I think, close. I don't think
there is any question but if the tobacco bill were voted on by the full
Senate, it would pass. I don't think there is much question about that.
There are some in the Senate, however, who are intent on trying to
kill the legislation. So we have been tied up here in legislative
knots, going through some amendments, but going through a process that
has led some to conclude that maybe this bill ought to get pulled,
maybe we ought to go to something else.
I ask the Senator from New Mexico, as it was stated this weekend by
the majority leader that perhaps we have to move to some other
legislation, is it the belief of the Senator from New Mexico that if we
don't get this bill completed now, it is likely we will never get this
piece of legislation?
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I respond to the question by just saying
I believe we have this week and we have next week. There is no more
important activity we can commit that time to than completing action on
this bill. I think the momentum for moving ahead on the bill will be
lost if we don't get it done before we break for the Fourth of July
recess.
Clearly, the notion of giving up on this and moving to another piece
of legislation--I don't know of any other piece of legislation that is
so urgent or so important that it would justify going off of this bill.
I am not aware of anything on the Senate's schedule that would justify
that action.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, if the Senator would yield further, I
point out that I, and I think a number of others in this Chamber, would
resist strongly an attempt to move to some other piece of legislation.
That would require a motion to proceed, which obviously some of us
would resist strenuously. We think it is important to finish this bill.
I think that some have missed the point. You go through this process
and have a debate. Some have missed the point. The point here is about
trying to prevent children from smoking in this country and trying to
prevent the tobacco industry from targeting kids with their tobacco
products. That is not rocket science. We can do that.
The piece of legislation that is before the Senate is a good piece of
legislation which has a series of things in it which are very
important--smoking cessation programs, counteradvertising programs,
prohibitions against advertising in ways that will target children,
getting rid of vending machines in areas where children have access to
[[Page S6360]]
cigarettes--a whole series of things that try to make certain that in
the future we will not have the tobacco industry able to target kids to
addict them to cigarettes.
We know every day 3,000 kids start smoking in this country. We know
1,000 of those 3,000 will die. We know 300,000 to 400,000 people in
this country die every year from smoking and smoking-related causes. We
also know that smoking cigarettes and the use of tobacco products is
legal for adults and will always remain legal. No one is suggesting
that it be illegal. But we are saying with this piece of legislation
that we ought not have a tobacco industry get its new customers from
teenagers.
I read yesterday and the day before a whole series of statements we
have now unearthed from the bowels of the tobacco companies which
demonstrate that they understood that their customers are teenagers,
their future customers come from teenagers. If you don't get them when
they are young, you don't get them. The industry's own documents
suggest that--that if you don't get them when they are kids, almost
never will they reach age 30 and try to evaluate, What am I missing
from life? come up with the idea they are missing smoking, and go out
and start getting addicted to cigarettes. That almost never happens.
I say to the Senator from New Mexico, and I ask him this question, it
seems to me we have kind of lost our way here on this bill as it has
been on the floor of the Senate for some weeks now. It seems to me that
we have, through amendments, gone zigzagging across the landscape here
and forgotten what the central premise of this piece of legislation is;
that the central premise, is it not, is to try to make certain that we
are not having an industry targeting our kids to smoke, and also
providing a whole series of steps--smoking cessation programs,
investment in health research, counteradvertising, and a range of other
things--to try to make sure that will not happen in the future; is that
not the case?
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I think that is clearly the case.
I think although there have been some far-reaching amendments added
to the bill, the central core of the bill remains the same. It remains
an effort to deal with the problem of young people beginning to smoke.
And, of course, it is a public health issue.
That is the reason I believe this legislation is historic, because it
goes directly at dealing with the major public health issue that is
before this country today and that can be dealt with. So, I think it is
extremely important we move ahead.
I understand there are particular provisions of the bill and
particular provisions of some of the amendments that various Members
don't like, but it is almost ironic because you hear people come to the
floor and support amendments to the bill and then use the fact that
those amendments have been adopted as a reason for claiming that the
bill is now so loaded down that we can't support the bill. To my mind,
the right course is for us to go ahead and pass the bill, consider
remaining amendments, adopt those that have the votes there to adopt,
pass the bill in that form, get it to conference, and hopefully the
House will do the same.
I believe that the same people who are urging me as a Senator to take
action on this important public health issue are urging Congressmen
from my State to take action on this important public health issue as
well. I hope that if we do the right thing before the Fourth of July
break, the House will come back in July and do the right thing by
passing a responsible bill and then we will be able to get a conference
and get something that we can send to the President before we adjourn
this fall. That is what is important. We have a historic opportunity
here. I hope very much we will rise to the occasion.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, we started debate on this bill weeks and
weeks ago here on the floor of the Senate. We started action on this
bill months ago in the Commerce Committee. I think we may have
forgotten that we started real action nearly a year ago. It was on June
20 of last year that there was an agreement announced between the
attorneys general and the tobacco industry. That was the basis that led
Congress to act. We are talking 1 year. On June 20 of 1997, the
attorneys general entered into an agreement with the tobacco industry.
Here we are, June 16 of 1998, and we still haven't acted. Now some
are saying we shouldn't act. The majority leader said over the weekend
that he thought this bill was dead. Well, he has said that about every
week. About every week there is an announcement by the majority leader,
the bill is dead. He said that when it was still in the Commerce
Committee, yet it came out of the Commerce Committee on a 19-1 vote.
Mr. President, I remind my colleagues that this has been going on for
a year because that has special importance. We are talking about 3,000
young people who take up the habit every day--3,000. Over a year, that
is over a million kids who have taken up the habit of smoking and the
use of tobacco products.
And we know that one-third of them will die prematurely as a result.
That is, over 300,000 children are going to die prematurely because
they have taken up the habit in the one year since the settlement
between the attorneys general of the various States and the tobacco
industry. They entered into an agreement to fundamentally transform
policy toward tobacco in this country. And now the question is, Is
Congress going to act, or are we going to have an enormous leadership
failure here in the U.S. Senate? That is the question.
I don't think anybody wants to have that kind of failure on their
hands. The fact is, it is very interesting that when people have a
chance to vote, things are much different than when they are just
talking with the newspapers. We have seen that over and over and over.
In the Budget Committee, in the Finance Committee, when people had a
chance to vote, they did vote, and the outcome was often much different
than what was predicted.
Let's look at the bill before us. We are talking about seeing the
price increase $1.10 a pack over the next 5 years. Why is that
important? Well, every single expert that has come and testified, every
element of the public health community has said that a significant
price increase is important in order to reduce youth smoking. That is
not the only part of reducing youth smoking, but it is an important
part. Second, we voted on look-back provisions. Look-back provisions
are the penalties to be imposed on the industry for the failure to
reduce youth smoking in line with the goals provided for in the
legislation.
We made a significant change here on the floor of the Senate. Before,
most of the fee was going to be charged to the industry on an industry-
wide basis. Some of us didn't think that made much sense, because what
happens when you do that is you put the good in with the bad. Those
companies that have accomplished the goal pay the industry penalty just
as those companies who have failed to reach the goal. What sense does
that make? That is not fair. Instead, we think most of the fee ought to
be placed on the companies which are the ones that failed to meet the
goal. They are the ones that ought to be held accountable, the ones
that ought to pay, and so that change was made here on the floor.
Third, we dealt with the question of liability. Out of the Commerce
Committee, just as in the proposed settlement, there was special
protection for this industry--protection never given any other industry
in our history. The vast majority of us on the floor of the Senate
said, no, that is not right; we should not be giving special protection
to this industry. That is not appropriate. So that was changed.
There have been other significant changes on the floor of the Senate.
A third of the revenue will now go for tax relief. Some of it is
designed to relieve the marriage penalty. In addition, there will be
other tax relief as well. So about a third of the revenue now goes for
tax relief. Many of us thought it was appropriate to have some of the
money go toward tax relief in this package, and now fully a third of it
does.
[[Page S6361]]
In addition, there are provisions to deal with illegal drugs. That is
a matter that is now included in the legislation. Not only are we
dealing with tobacco, tobacco products, but also illegal drugs. There
are very strong provisions which have now been included in this
legislation that relate to that. There is also the question of FDA
authority. FDA has been given the authority to regulate this drug as
they regulate other drugs in our society.
We still have several matters left to resolve. One is the whole
question of agriculture, how tobacco farmers will be treated.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time allotted to the Senator has expired.
Mr. CONRAD. How much time is left on our side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota, Mr. Dorgan, has
8 minutes remaining.
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional
minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. CONRAD. I thank the Chair.
We have important matters left to resolve. How are tobacco farmers
going to be treated? What are we going to do about the question of
attorneys' fees. Obviously, none of us wants to see attorneys unjustly
enriched by these tobacco settlements. In the underlying bill, the
McCain bill, which came out of the Commerce Committee on a 19-1 vote,
they provided for arbitration. Many of us think that is the best way to
resolve this matter--to have parties get together and resolve, on an
arbitration basis, differences over attorneys' fees so attorneys are
not unjustly enriched by these settlements.
Mr. President, most important is that I think we ought to stay on
this bill until it is finished. We have spent 3 weeks of the Senate's
time so far on this legislation. Let's finish the course. Let's get
this bill resolved. I think that makes sense. I think it would be an
enormous leadership failure if this Senate didn't take final action on
this legislation. Some are saying the House isn't going to have a bill.
Well, none of us can tell that until we act. We have taken a lead on
this question in the U.S. Senate; we ought to complete our action and
then let the House decide what it does. Let them be accountable for
their action--or their failure to act.
Mr. President, I hope we will stay on this bill until we finish this
bill. That ought to be our message. The reason is very important. We
have delay, and this delay is costing people's lives. As I indicated,
we are in a circumstance in which, since the industry entered into a
settlement with the attorneys general nearly 1 year ago, 1 million kids
have taken up the habit. Fully a third of them are going to die
prematurely--over 300,000 young people.
Let me just close by saying the tobacco companies tell you in their
paid advertising--they describe this bill in unfavorable terms. Let's
remember their background. They have misrepresented this issue
repeatedly.
I thank the Chair.
Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brownback). The Senator from North Dakota,
Mr. Dorgan, is recognized.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, let me take another minute or so of my
time. I know the Senator from Kansas wishes to seek the floor.
Virtually everything we do represents a series of choices. We have a
choice now here in the Senate; we can choose to succeed, or we can
choose to fail on this tobacco legislation. As Senator Conrad has
indicated, we have come a long way, and we have had people all along
the way who are detractors. I can remember how controversial it was
just to put a warning label on the side of a pack of cigarettes. Do you
remember how controversial that was? It was the right thing to do,
obviously. Would someone vote now to take the warning label off? I
don't think so.
The legislation before the Senate is very important. We as Senators
and as a body can choose to succeed or fail. To those who want to
choose to fail and say this bill cannot become law, we are going to
pull the bill and go to something else, we simply want to say that some
of us will resist that with great effort. We will resist every decision
to move to other legislation before we complete work on this
legislation. We hope the bipartisan leadership of the Senate will
decide that this bill is important enough to finish, and it can be
finished, in my judgment, this week or next week. We have traveled too
far a distance on this to fail in the final week on a piece of
legislation this important to our country.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. ROBERTS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from the State of Kansas.
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