[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 21, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         LEGISLATION TO ALLOW FDA AUTHORITY TO REGULATE TOBACCO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, today the Supreme Court recognized that 
tobacco use is perhaps the most single significant threat to public 
health in the United States. Unfortunately, the Court also ruled that 
Congress had not given the Food and Drug Administration explicit 
authority to regulate tobacco.
  We can change that today.
  The Republican leadership blocked legislation in the past to give FDA 
this authority. This afternoon, I will reintroduce a bill that gives 
FDA explicit authority to regulate tobacco.
  The Republican leadership has sole power to bring this bill to the 
floor this week or next week or next month. But the day has passed to 
ignore tobacco's deadly toll and the thousands of children who start 
smoking every day. We cannot look to FDA. We cannot look to the courts. 
We have the responsibility, and we must act.
  Two years ago, I reached a comprehensive agreement with the gentleman 
from Virginia (Mr. Bliley), the chairman of the Committee on Commerce, 
to reduce smoking by children. The Republican leadership must let the 
House consider tobacco legislation. It is long overdue.
  We had hoped the Supreme Court would have allowed the FDA to regulate 
tobacco on its own. Their decision today by 5 to 4 has sent the issue 
back to the Congress. It is now our responsibility. We can ignore that 
responsibility no longer.
  With the bill that I will introduce today, it will be very clear that 
FDA will be able to regulate tobacco as they have chosen to do to stop 
them from targeting our kids. I call on the Republican leadership to 
work on a bipartisan basis to give the FDA this authority. We must stop 
tobacco companies from going after our children at the ages of 12, 13, 
and 14 to get them to start smoking a product that they know will hook 
many of them and keep them smoking into adulthood.




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