[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 84 (Monday, June 8, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6231-S6232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT

  Mr. REID. At 5:30, we are going to have an extremely important vote 
on whether this body will invoke cloture on the tobacco legislation.
  Sunday--yesterday--3,500 children who had never smoked before tried 
their first cigarette. Today, another 3,500 will do the same and 
Tuesday it will be the same and Wednesday it will be the same. For 
some, it will also be their last cigarette but certainly not all.
  We all have had our experiences of when we tried our first cigarette. 
In a little book I wrote about myself, I talk about that experience, 
and I will relay it here briefly.
  My Brother Don is 12 years older than I am. He came home from the 
Marine Corps smoking Kool cigarettes. He smoked a lot of them. He 
agreed to take his little brother hunting. There isn't much to hunt in 
Searchlight, but it was a time to get together with his brother. We had 
a little .22 rifle, and we were hoping we would see a rabbit or 
something. Mostly, it was a chance for my big brother to be with his 
little brother. He was smoking, and he smoked a lot. We were driving 
down a dirt road, what we called the railroad grade. I kept saying: 
Don, give me a puff. I kept asking, as a little boy would do; I was 
maybe 10 or 11 at the time. Finally, he said: OK. Here is what you do. 
Take it like I do and suck in as hard as you can. I did anything my 
brother asked me to do, so I did that. I can still feel it. That was 
the last cigarette I ever smoked or ever wanted to smoke. Even though 
my entire family smoked, not me; it hurt too bad.
  For others not having had the experience that I had, smoking would 
become part of their daily lives, as happened with the kids I grew up 
with in the little town of Searchlight. They all smoked as little kids. 
If you think 3,500 is a scary number, how about 3.5 million. That is a 
pretty scary number. That is how many American high school kids smoke--
3.5 million. Nearly all of them aren't old enough to buy cigarettes. 
That means there are at least a half million more students who smoke 
than there are men, women, and children living in Nevada. It means we 
have as many boys and girls smoking as are participating in athletics 
in high schools. We have as many as are playing football, basketball, 
track and field, and baseball combined. When

[[Page S6232]]

there are that many students endangering their health as there are 
staying healthy by playing the four most popular sports in the 
country--remember, I didn't mention soccer, but it is popular now, so 
we can include that and still outmatch that by far.
  Should we be surprised? Every year, the tobacco industry pours 
hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars into marketing and 
designing to get more people, including children--because they know 
what the market is--to start smoking. Nine out of ten regular smokers 
in America started when they were kids--some of them as young as 8 or 9 
years old. The tobacco marketers are very good at their jobs, there is 
no question. But it is time we do our job.
  The bipartisan bill Senator Kennedy and the HELP Committee delivered 
does a lot of good. It helps keep American children and their families 
healthy. It keeps tobacco companies honest about the dangers of using 
their poisonous products by strengthening the existing warning labels. 
It will make it harder for them to sell cigarettes, and even smokeless 
tobacco, to children. It will make it harder for tobacco companies to 
lure our children in the first place.
  When this bill becomes law--and it will; it is only a question of 
time--it will also help those who smoke overcome their addictions and 
make tobacco products less toxic for those who cannot or don't want to 
stop.
  I wish to be clear about one thing. Nobody is trying to ban the use 
of tobacco products. But we are giving the proper authority--the Food 
and Drug Administration--the tools it needs to help those who smoke and 
protect those around them.
  We will talk a lot in the coming weeks and months about different 
ways to lift the heavy weight of health insurance costs. Think of 
tobacco. These crushing costs keep Americans from getting the care they 
need to stay healthy or help a loved one stay the same. The overall 
cost of health care--think about tobacco. Health care costs have driven 
countless families into bankruptcy, foreclosure, disease, and even 
death. We will debate and, at times, we will disagree. But think of 
tobacco. One of the most surefire solutions is to prevent health 
emergencies before they begin.
  There is no doubt the effects of smoking qualify for such an 
emergency. Tobacco-related health care costs in America are 
unbelievably high--more than $100 billion every year. If you think 
government is spending too much of your money, consider this: Your 
State and Federal Government spend about $60 billion every year on 
Medicare and Medicaid payments for health problems related to tobacco. 
For Medicare and Medicaid, it is $60 billion a year related to tobacco 
diseases and conditions. So it is not just a health crisis, it is an 
economic crisis--one we cannot afford.
  We cannot afford to spend $60 billion in Medicare and Medicaid money 
on tobacco-related problems. Still, if that weren't bad enough, about 
500,000 people die every year as a result of their smoking or someone 
else's smoking. These deaths are from lung cancer, emphysema, and many 
other conditions related to tobacco, including heart disease, because 
we all know that is made much worse by tobacco. You can name any 
disease, and it is rare that tobacco doesn't make it worse. It is 
preventable. This bill will ease the pain and prevent others from going 
through it.
  The dangers of smoking are hardly breaking news. We have known about 
it for decades. We know about it, and we have known about it for a long 
time. I have to say, though, that my parents didn't know about it. They 
didn't know about it. They started smoking as kids, and everybody 
smoked. When you went into the military, they gave you free cigarettes 
as part of the deal. We didn't know about it when my brother offered me 
the cigarette. But we know volumes about it today. We must do more than 
just know about it.
  This vote is simple. It is between endangering our children's health 
and enriching the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry that poisons and 
preys upon them. It is between accepting the responsibility we have to 
our future and rejecting the irresponsibility of the pervasive and 
perverse tobacco companies. It is time we have that vote because 
tomorrow 3,500 more of our sons and daughters will light up their first 
cigarette.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is 
recognized.

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