WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations today approved its FY 2018 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
A statement from Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), follows:
“We applaud the Committee for preserving the FDA’s ability to protect the public health and authority to regulate tobacco products, including those proving to be popular with youth, like cigars and electronic cigarettes.
“Unlike the House version of this bill, senators did not exempt from FDA oversight many cigars, including some cheap and flavored cigars often popular with youth. The Committee’s action preserves FDA authority to regulate all tobacco products as granted by Congress in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.
“In addition, the Senate bill does not include a tobacco industry loophole that would change the ‘grandfather date’ to allow many cigars, e-cigarettes, and other tobacco products to escape a critical FDA review and make it easier for new products to stay on the market before the agency determines their public health risk.
“We applaud the Committee for adopting a clean bill and rejecting proposals to undercut the FDA’s oversight authority of tobacco products.”