Protect farmers and farming communities
February 4, 2000
Today, the White House announced that the Administration's
budget will include important new steps to reduce youth
smoking and hold the tobacco industry accountable. Every
year, more than 400,000 Americans die from tobacco-
related diseases; nearly 90 percent of them started smoking
as children. To address this, one of the nation's most
serious public health challenges, the Administration will
propose to:
Cut Youth Smoking in Half
-- by holding the tobacco industry accountable. The Administration's
budget will cut youth
smoking in half by charging the tobacco industry an
assessment for every underage smoker. These youth
smoking assessments will provide a strong incentive for
tobacco companies to reduce sales to minors and eliminate
advertising encouraging children to smoke. The $3,000
assessment for every smoker under age 18 will be put in
place starting in 2004 only if youth smoking has not been
cut in half and would remain in effect until the youth smoking
reduction goal has been met. This $3,000 annual
assessment represents twice the lifetime profits the
industry is expected to make from hooking a teen on
cigarettes. This policy will significantly reduce youth smoking
when combined with the price increases and public health
initiatives underway as a result of the 1998 state tobacco
settlement and other federal, state, and local efforts.
Increase Excise Taxes On Cigarettes By 25 Cents Per Pack
-- beginning in FY 2001, to raise further the price of tobacco
products from the 45 cent increase agreed to by the states
and the industry in 1998. This increase will help reduce
youth smoking and help achieve the Administration's goal
of cutting youth smoking in half. Public health experts agree
that raising the price of cigarettes cuts youth smoking and
recent surveys of youth smoking released by independent
experts indicate youth smoking rates have started to
decline since recent price increases were put in place. In
addition to raising the price of cigarettes by 25 cents a pack,
the Administration's budget will include comparable
increases in the price of other tobacco products such as
smokeless tobacco and cigars, and will move an already
legislated 5 cents per pack cigarette increase from
January 1, 2002 to October 1, 2000.
These proposals will reduce youth smoking, and
complement the progress being made as a result of the
1998 settlement between the states and the industry.
These policies would not affect the $246 billion agreement
made between the states and the tobacco industry.
Help current smokers quit.
-- the Administration's budget will
take an important step to improve the health of low-income
Americans by ensuring they have access to drugs to help
them quit smoking. The Administration's budget will ensure
every state Medicaid program covers both prescription
and non-prescription smoking cessation drugs, removing a
special exclusion now in law and requiring states to cover
these drugs as they cover all other FDA-approved drugs.
The federal government would provide the usual federal
match for these costs, as it does for other Medicaid
expenses, and states could use proceeds from the 1998
tobacco settlement or other funds to pay their share.
Medical research shows that smoking cessation products
greatly increase success rates for those trying to quit
smoking, and that quitting has major and immediate health
benefits for smokers of all ages. Through this proposal, the
Administration will ensure millions of low-income Americans
have access to medical treatments that will help them
break their addiction to tobacco, at a federal cost of $66
million over the next five years.
Support State and Community Efforts to Prevent Youth Smoking
-- the Administration's budget will help support tobacco
prevention programs in states and local communities through
$106 million in resources for the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC). This funding, a ten-fold increase over
1993 levels, will enable the CDC to work with states and
communities to help them put in place effective programs to
prevent tobacco use, particularly among children. This effort
is critically important as states begin to decide how to spend
the $246 billion they will receive over the next 25 years from
the 1998 settlement with the tobacco industry.
Help Enforce Laws Preventing Minors from Purchasing
Tobacco Products
-- the Administration's budget will include
$39 million for the Food and Drug Administration to help
enforce the laws preventing youth under age 18 from
purchasing tobacco products. Currently federal law requires
every state to prohibit minors from purchasing tobacco
products, and federal regulations ensure retailers check
photo i.d.s of young people who try to purchase them.
These funds will help the FDA work with the states and with
retailers to enforce these laws, by providing retailers with
informational materials to help them explain the rules to
customers and by conducting random checks of retailer
compliance.
Support Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Full
Authority to Keep Cigarettes Out of the Hands of Children
-- the Administration supports full FDA authority to regulate
tobacco products in order to halt advertising targeted to
children and to curb minors' access to tobacco products.
In 1996 the Administration put forward a comprehensive
regulation to protect children from tobacco, which the
tobacco industry challenged in court. The Administration
remains fully committed to the FDA rule.
Recover tobacco-related health care costs
-- the Administration firmly supports the Department of Justice's
litigation to recover federal tobacco-related health costs,
and his budget contains funds to pay the necessary legal
costs. In addition to any remedies imposed by the court to
advance public health, recoveries from the litigation will be
used to assist tobacco farmers and their communities, to
pay federal tobacco related health costs, and to enhance
the security of Medicare and Social Security for future
generations.
Protect farmers and farming communities
-- this Administration is committed to protecting tobacco farmers
and their communities. The Administration fully supports the
$5 billion settlement to compensate tobacco farmers, which
was agreed to by the states and industry in 1998, as well as
the $328 million included in the Agricultural Appropriations
bill for FY 2000, and is committed, as any federal litigation
moves to judgment or settlement, to ensure funds are set
aside for the financial security of tobacco farmers and their
communities.
source: Bill Godshall
