[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 9, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6328-S6329]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT

  Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I came to the floor to speak in support 
of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and also to 
express my gratitude to Senator Kennedy and my colleagues who have 
pushed so hard for the consideration of this important bill. I am so 
pleased about the vote last night which allowed us to move forward on 
this bill.
  This would be a historic accomplishment for this Senate, the House, 
and for the President. I am at a loss to understand how Senators could 
stand in opposition to this important legislation. To prove the point, 
I could ask a couple of questions:
  What is the leading cause of preventable death in this country, 
killing over 400,000 Americans a year? The leading cause of preventable 
death is tobacco.
  What causes more deaths than HIV/AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, 
motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and murders combined? I guess if you 
ask people out there, they may not know that the answer is tobacco.
  What are the only products on the market that kill one-third of their 
purchasers? Madam President, if you had a health device or any product 
that kills one-third of its purchasers, we would outlaw that product in 
a heartbeat. We are not outlawing tobacco; we are simply saying tobacco 
needs to be controlled by the FDA. Remember, the only product on the 
market that kills one-third of its purchasers is tobacco, if used as 
directed.
  I could go on and on with these rhetorical questions. Clearly, we 
know tobacco is the only product on the market that is advertised and 
sold without any government oversight.
  I don't understand how 35 or so of our colleagues think the answer to 
our pushing for this is no. But then again, that is the answer we get 
back from the other side of the aisle a lot. I am very grateful to the 
eight or nine Republicans who joined us. Without them,

[[Page S6329]]

we wouldn't be here today. As I did on the stimulus, thanking those 
three who had the bravery to say yes, I thank the eight or nine who had 
the bravery to say yes and move to regulate tobacco. Food is regulated. 
Drugs are regulated. Consumer products are regulated. Tobacco is not. 
We know this bill could prevent 80,000 tobacco-related deaths every 
year.
  It makes me sad to think that over the years our failure to address 
this issue is having the greatest impact on our Nation's children. 
Ninety percent of all new smokers are children. I have spoken to the 
tobacco executives and watched them being interviewed. ``Oh, we just 
don't want kids to get our products.'' Please. It is embarrassing that 
they can say that with a straight face when they have invented all 
kinds of new products, including tobacco candy. You know, there is an 
old cliche that ``this is so easy, it is like giving candy to a baby.'' 
We know kids love candy, and what happens if you lace that candy with 
an addictive product? The answer is that we get a lot of kids hooked on 
tobacco who cannot quit when they get older.
  Claims by the tobacco industry that these products are safe 
alternatives to smoking and they are not designed to attract kids, 
frankly, just don't add up. You know what they are doing. We know adult 
smokers are finally saying no; they are quitting, thank goodness. It is 
very difficult. I have watched it up close with family and friends, and 
some of them who quit for 2, 3 years go right back again, and it is 
worse than ever. This isn't easy. Don't say you are creating a safer 
product when you create tobacco candy, a smokeless tobacco. We know 
smokeless tobacco can lead to oral cancer, gum disease, heart attacks, 
heart disease, cancer of the esophagus, and cancer of the stomach. 
Smokeless tobacco products are only the latest effort by the tobacco 
companies to market tobacco products that they claim pose a reduced 
risk.
  Cigarettes contain 69 known carcinogens and hundreds of other 
ingredients that contribute to the risk of all of the diseases I 
mentioned. Yet the tobacco industry is not required to list the 
ingredients of its products as all food products have to do. We have a 
right to know the calories, sugar, protein, and all those things when 
we eat food, but for cigarettes they don't have to list the 
ingredients.
  The bill will make it so that we finally know what is contained in 
these products. The legislation will grant the FDA the authority to ban 
the most harmful chemicals used in tobacco and even to reduce the 
amount of nicotine.
  A 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study revealed that the 
average amount of nicotine in cigarettes actually rose 11.8 percent 
from 1997 to 2005. How can my colleagues on the other side, who voted 
pretty much en masse against this bill, say we should just keep it open 
to amendment? How can they explain that even after all these years, now 
that we know the risks of tobacco? There were reasons in the early 
years when we didn't know how serious it was. That is one thing. But 
here they have a situation where recently they raised the amount of 
nicotine. There is no rhyme or reason for that.
  This bill will give the FDA the authority to require stronger warning 
labels, prevent industry misrepresentations, and regulate ``reduced 
harm'' claims about tobacco products. If you die because you use 
smokeless tobacco but say you die from a heart attack, you are still 
dead. This Congress and the President have committed to reducing health 
care costs through comprehensive reform. This legislation is such an 
important step on the way because lung cancer is a preventable disease. 
It is preventable, as well as the heart risks associated with smoking. 
Investing in prevention and wellness will enable us to increase access 
to quality health care while reducing costs.
  Tobacco use results in $96 billion in annual health care costs, and 
in California alone--my State--we spend $9.1 billion on smoking-related 
health care costs. Everybody who has a heartbeat and a pulse today 
knows that my State suffers mightily from a terrible budget crisis--$20 
billion. We don't know where to look, what to do. People never put 
together the fact that smoking is causing our health care costs to 
swell. If my State could save $9.1 billion on smoking-related health 
care costs, that really saves the education system and a lot of other 
important things we do in our State.
  Preventive medicine and giving the authority to the FDA to vigorously 
enforce some strict, new laws about cigarettes is going to make a 
positive difference. I am proud to be here in support of this important 
legislation.
  I wish to say again to Senator Kennedy, if he is watching this 
debate, how much I respect, admire, and miss him and his presence here 
on this bill. If he were here, he would be roaring from the back of the 
Chamber about this, in the best of ways, and challenging us to move 
forward on this bill as quickly as we can.
  The House has acted. Once the Senate acts, we can have a conference--
or maybe the House will take the Senate bill--and this bill will be on 
the President's desk before we do health care reform. Imagine what a 
great preamble this would be to health care reform--tackling this 
incredible problem in our society, tobacco use, an incredible problem 
in our society that causes so much suffering and dependence and so much 
addiction, so much cost--if we are able to tackle this as a preamble to 
our health care reform, I would be so proud. I know each and every one 
of us who will support this will be very proud. I know President Obama 
will be very proud. He has struggled with tobacco addiction. He knows 
how tough it is to say no to cigarettes. Clearly, the best way is to 
prevent someone from getting addicted in the first place.
  I don't want my grandkids being lured into smoking by looking at a 
box of candy cigarettes and trying one, two, three, and four. I don't 
want that for anybody's grandkids. If people decide when they are 
older, when they know all of the facts, that they are going to smoke, 
in many ways that is their problem. But it is our job to let them know 
the risks and dangers. Very clearly, we have been dancing around the 
edges with these little warning labels, but we have not controlled 
tobacco. We need to do that.
  I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--again, 
thanking the eight or nine Republicans for joining us--to make an 
investment in the health of the American people and support this 
legislation.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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