Washington, D.C. – Today the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved an appropriations bill that would greatly restrict the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products. The provision was attached as a rider to the FY 2019 FDA appropriations bill.
A statement from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) follows:
“The provisions attached to the FDA appropriations bill today would roll back effective public health policy included in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in favor of big tobacco’s special interest agenda. Significantly restricting FDA’s ability to exercise its regulatory authority on all tobacco products like e-cigarettes and cigars—many of which are cheap, flavored, and popular with youth—risks losing the progress we’ve made in reducing tobacco’s devastating effects.
“Congress committed themselves to protecting and promoting the health of Americans when it passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Instead of working to undermine that comprehensive legislation, we urge lawmakers in the House to reject these dangerous changes when the bill comes before the full body and call on the Senate to adopt and pass a clean appropriations bill preserving, not undercutting, FDA’s oversight authority. Only through a comprehensive approach to tobacco control can we save lives, keep kids from starting an all too frequent lifelong and deadly addiction, and end the scourge of tobacco on the American people in our lifetime.”
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