[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S2556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              E-Cigarettes

  Mr. President, my family, like many families in America, has been 
touched by tobacco-related disease and death. My father died of lung 
cancer when I was 14 years old--he was 53. Two packs of Camels a day, 
he got lung cancer and died at that age. I still remember it to this 
day, even though it happened over 60 years ago. I am not alone in that. 
There are so many families that can tell that story, sadly.
  And because of it, I have really focused on stopping Big Tobacco from 
addicting more and more Americans and sentencing them to death, in many 
instances, because of their deadly products.
  Over the years, I have had some success. It was over 25 years ago 
that I banned smoking on airplanes. Senator Frank Lautenberg picked up 
the bill over here on the Senate side, carried it successfully, and it 
was signed into law.
  It changed--we didn't realize it at the time, it just changed 
America's attitude toward smoking. It was, indeed, a tipping point. But 
I have been watching Big Tobacco ever since. Their approach to building 
their market is very basic. They have to lure children into the 
addiction. Kids that are not mature enough to say no pick up the 
addiction of smoking and end up carrying it to their graves, if they 
are not careful.
  And so we have, over the years, put warnings on cigarette packages, 
raised the price beyond the reach of children, and done everything that 
we could.
  Well, these Big Tobacco interests are not discouraged. They found a 
new product that is wildly popular among young people that creates a 
similar addiction. It's called e-cigarettes or vaping. Ask any of your 
kids in high school, ask the teachers in the schools and the 
principals, what is going on with vaping in your schools today? You 
will find it's wildly popular, and kids are taking it up. And many of 
them switch from the vaping products to tobacco products and, 
ultimately, at the expense of their health.
  That is what has happened. So we basically said to the Food and Drug 
Administration: You have a responsibility to regulate this. They can't 
put their products on the shelves without you taking a look at it.
  Well, let me tell you the story of what has happened. These companies 
have flooded the market with addictive vaping devices, companies like 
JUUL, which is partially owned by the tobacco companies, and they 
promoted their products to children.
  For years, none of these devices were legally authorized, and, yet, 
they have poisoned the developing brains and bodies of our kids. Who 
was supposed to be the cop on the beat? The Food and Drug 
Administration in Washington, but they were nowhere to be found. After 
years and years of the FDA failing to regulate e-cigarettes--listen to 
this--a Federal district court stepped in and mandated that the Food 
and Drug Administration fulfill its statutory public health duty.
  On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration submitted an update on 
its Agency's long overdue review of e-cigarette applications.
  Listen to this. In it, the Food and Drug Administration admitted it 
will not finish reviewing e-cigarettes until July 2023, nearly two 
years past the Court's deadline of last September. This is a stunning 
disclosure.
  This means that JUUL and other e-cigarettes that kids get hooked on 
in the nicotine contained in the product and which have not received an 
authorization from the FDA may continue to be sold with impunity for 
more than a year. Imagine the thousands of students who will become 
addicted to these products while the FDA dawdles.
  What is most incredible to me is that this outcome is not inevitable. 
In fact, if it wanted to, the Food and Drug Administration, before the 
end of business today, could remove these products by regulation from 
the shelves of America.
  That is right: Addictive e-cigarettes like JUUL are only on store 
shelves because the FDA has given tobacco companies a free pass to sell 
their vaping products.
  This is just wrong. This is exactly the opposite of the intent of the 
law. With this decision, the FDA is complicit in endangering the health 
of America's kids. That is a powerful statement, but I stand by it.
  The law is very clear, no tobacco product is supposed to be on store 
shelves unless its manufacturer proves to the FDA, prior to marketing, 
that it is appropriate for public health.
  How in the world could you prove that a vaping cigarette, e-
cigarette, is in some way appropriate for the protection of public 
health? It is just the opposite, and we all know it.
  So today I am beginning by calling on the FDA to immediately halt its 
enforcement discretion and remove all unauthorized e-cigarettes from 
the market. Don't allow JUUL and the other tobacco companies one more 
day of addicting our children. Stop cowering before Big Tobacco's 
highly paid lawyers.
  We have seen too many years of delay by the FDA to the point where 
the Court had to order them to finally exercise their obligations under 
the law, and we have seen too many kids hooked on e-cigarettes. If the 
Food and Drug Administration needs more time to review applications, 
protect our kids, and clear the market of big tobacco's poison while 
you are doing it--nothing less than the health and well-being of our 
children is on the line.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.