Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110057
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Philip Morris, breathe easier.
No other congressional changeover better shows the stark differences between the outgoing 103rd Congress and the incoming 104th than the switch at the top of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment. On the way out: Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who used the subcommittee as a staging ground for a fierce attack on the tobacco industry.
Waxman's likeliest replacement: Virginia's Thomas Bliley, R-Richmond, whose district's largest private employer is Philip Morris USA. As the ranking minority member of Waxman's subcommittee, Bliley criticized the hearings as grandstanding and marshaled Republican forces to defend the industry and fight the forces of regulation.
Bliley's chairmanship is not a done deal - mainly because he might take the chairmanship of Energy and Commerce. In either job, however, he would have profound influence over the way the tobacco industry is treated in Congress.
Bliley has said that whatever his role, Republican control of Congress means that the high-profile tobacco hearings and attempts to regulate the industry will come to an end. Wednesday he told the Associated Press, ``I don't think we need any more legislation regulating tobacco.''
In an interview with The Washington Post on Thursday, Bliley's tone was more moderate, but the bottom line was the same. ``Obviously, I am not as hostile to tobacco and the tobacco industry as the chairman [Waxman],'' said Bliley, a pipe smoker. Since the Republicans' first order of business will be enacting the components of the ``Contract With America'' program, Bliley said, ``For a while, we're going to be awfully busy - and I don't know how much time we're going to have to devote to tobacco.''
Waxman criticized the new majority's position. ``Right out of the box, the Republicans are saying what they want to do with the health committee is stop an investigation into tobacco - even though smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death. I find that astounding. ... He is going to be chairman of the health committee, not the tobacco committee,'' Waxman said.
Waxman said that the investigation of industry practices should continue: ``The American public has a right to know whether tobacco companies have deliberately manipulated nicotine levels to addict smokers or deliberately concealed information about the dangers of smoking - and whether the tobacco industry is pushing cigarettes and other tobacco products to kids.''
Though the tobacco hearings may cease, other pressures on the industry are not likely to go away. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering a nationwide ban on smoking in public buildings, and lawsuits against the tobacco companies are on the rise.
Additional pressure could come from the Food and Drug Administration. Waxman's tobacco hearings have dovetailed with an investigation by the FDA into the practices of the tobacco industry. In a Feb.25 letter to the anti-tobacco Coalition on Smoking OR Health, FDA Commissioner David Kessler said that the agency is considering whether to regulate tobacco as a drug. Since then, Kessler, originally a Bush appointee, has appeared before Waxman's subcommittee to detail practices that suggest the industry fine-tunes the levels of nicotine in its products, which could lead to a finding that tobacco companies intend that their products be used as drugs. Kessler has said that the agency has no plans to ban tobacco products. A regulatory scheme would likely involve mandating a gradual diminution of nicotine levels in tobacco products, eventually rendering them nonaddictive.
Though FDA officials have requested congressional guidance on the tobacco regulation issue, they have said the agency does not need congressional approval to assert its authority if it determines that manufacturers intend the products to be used as drugs.
One adviser to Kessler who requested anonymity said that Kessler would not back down, but that the agency would proceed carefully. ``When it finally comes time to declare that cigarettes are a regulated consumer product in America,'' the adviser said, ``the case will be airtight.''
An FDA attempt to regulate tobacco products could create a political firestorm, however. Republicans may try to block any FDA move by statute, just as legislators reshaped the agency's regulatory authority over nutritional supplements late in the 103rd Congress.
In recent days, Bliley has sounded a warning to regulators who would, as he put it, ``legislate by executive order, thereby circumventing the legislative process of the U.S. Congress.'' But Bliley said on Thursday, ``I would expect whatever FDA would do would be based on solid scientific evidence and not on political correctness.''
by CNB