Bishop, Chaffetz oppose FDA regulation of tobacco

Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, are both nonsmoking Mormons. But both joined most House Republicans on Thursday to vote against allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.

They said they dislike how the bill would use tobacco taxes to fund tobacco enforcement and say the FDA should regulate only healthy products — not deadly tobacco.

Still, the House voted 298-112 to give the FDA sweeping powers to regulate the production and marketing of tobacco. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, voted for it, along with a majority of Democrats.

Chaffetz said, "No one hates tobacco more than I do. It robbed me of my mother, who died of cancer several years ago. Tobacco is an insidious product, which steals good health and is often the 'gateway' drug for teenagers to harder substances."

But, he said, "as strongly as I feel about it, I cannot support this bill. It seems counterintuitive that we would fund government-run health and tobacco-enforcement programs on revenue generated from tobacco production and sales. If we were serious about doing something about tobacco, we wouldn't do it in this way."

Bishop's chief of staff, Scott Parker, said Bishop also opposes smoking but could not support the bill.

"The bill contains tax increases, which Rob consistently opposes on principle," he said. "The bill relies on increased funding, through taxes, from the tobacco industry to then try and limit and restrict the tobacco industry. Both of those can't happen together, so the legislation doesn't make sense."

Parker added, "It's a distraction from the purpose of the FDA." He said it does not make sense "to require that the FDA, which is charged with promoting public health, now (to) license a product which is inherently unhealthy. There are better ways to fight this battle."

Meanwhile, Matheson said, "Everyone knows tobacco has serious health effects. The FDA is clearly the right agency to get involved in regulating that substance. So I enthusiastically voted for this bill. I think we've got to get on top of this issue."

The bill would allow the FDA to regulate nicotine levels, and tobacco products would face tough new marketing and advertising restrictions.

Republicans pushed an alternative, which died on a 142-284 vote, that would not have the FDA regulate tobacco but instead would have created a new "Tobacco Harm Reduction Center" to regulate it within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The White House issued a statement this week supporting the bill that the House eventually approved, and said it would "yield major benefits to the public health" by discouraging teen smoking and reducing health-care spending. President Barack Obama has also publicly acknowledged difficulties he has had in trying to quit smoking.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. Sen. Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., who helped block a similar bill there last year, has renewed a threat to filibuster the bill there. North Carolina is home to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which opposes the bill.

E-mail: lee@desnews.com