Tobacco: The Debate Continues
Brushing off an industry boycott and threats of lawsuits, both Clinton administration officials and members of Congress say they are confident they'll pass tough anti-tobacco legislation by the end of this year.
"We will get bipartisan legislation this year," Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala declared on Sunday. "There's no question about it because it's about public health."
Major tobacco companies last week announced they would not go along with tobacco legislation being debated in Congress, saying the original goal of reducing teen smoking had been subverted into a money grab that would drive the industry into bankruptcy.
Industry leaders stressed Sunday that they would unleash their huge lobbying power to stop the legislation and would go to court to challenge provisions that limit advertising of tobacco products and require companies to pay billions in penalties if teen smoking reduction goals aren't met.
"The first thing we would do, if the present legislation passes, is go to court and have it declared unconstitutional," tobacco industry attorney J. Philip Carlton said on Fox News Sunday.
Carlton and other industry spokesmen raised the specter of organized crime and drug dealers running black market sales to teen-agers if Congress forces cigarette prices up and the possibility that the industry would move jobs overseas. "You're talking about approximately 2 million American jobs," Carlton said.
"I'm optimistic that we can get this done by this summer," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS' Face the Nation.
The industry walkout came after McCain's Commerce Committee, by a 19-1 vote, approved a bill that would be much tougher on tobacco companies than the $368 billion accord reached with state attorneys general and health advocates last year.
The McCain legislation, which has been praised by the administration, would require the industry to pay $516 billion over 25 years for antismoking programs, would increase the cost of a pack of cigarettes by $1.10, would set a $6.5 billion annual liability cap but offer no immunity from future suits and would levy an annual $3.5 billion industry penalty if teen smoking goals are not met.
The House has moved slower on the issue, but Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a leading advocate of tough antismoking measures, said he expects a strong bill because in an election year Republicans, long recipients of big contributions from the tobacco industry, don't want to appear pro-tobacco.
"I don't think they want that around their necks," he said on NBC's Meet the Press. "Ultimately we are going to work in a bipartisan basis and get strong legislation and I don't think the tobacco companies are going to like it."
Steven Parrish, senior vice president of Philip Morris, said on NBC that if President Clinton asked tobacco companies to attend summit aimed at reaching a deal, "obviously you would have to come." But, he added, "I wonder if it is not too late for that."
By Jim Abrams
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