House passes bill to restrict flavored tobacco products
WASHINGTON — The House on Friday passed a bill that would ban flavored tobacco products and impose taxes and sales restrictions on e-cigarettes.
While the bill was mainly touted as part of House Democrats’ efforts to limit youth e-cigarette use, the vote underscored concerns that the bill could discriminate against some tobacco users.
The bill, which passed 213-195, would ban all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars. But it also would carve out more expensive premium cigars from the most stringent Food and Drug Administration
regulation, leading to criticisms from some Democrats and many Republicans that it would impose a double standard based on race and class.
Still, Democrats’ desire to address youth e-cigarette use was enough to advance the bill. Party leaders view the measure as essential to building on the recently enacted nationwide tobacco purchasing age of 21, as well as filling in gaps left by the Trump administration’s decision to ban flavors in pod-based e-cigarettes like Juul but keep them available in other vaping formats.
“Big tobacco has become totally irresponsible in running ads in trying to get kids hooked on tobacco, primarily vaping through flavors, and we have to do something about it,” said House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., who sponsored the bill.
The Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to take up the measure. The White House on Thursday threatened to veto the bill, and only a minority of Republicans support the bill’s e-cigarette and other tobacco flavor restrictions.
The bill would provide an opportunity to continue sales of e-cigarette flavors, which are already set to be subject to FDA scrutiny in May. If a company can show that the flavor is necessary to help adult smokers switch from traditional cigarettes and doesn’t have an adverse health impact or cause nonsmokers to take up vaping, the FDA may authorize it.
The bill’s authors think that would be a standard no e-cigarette manufacturer would be able to meet.
The bill would also impose new taxes on vaping products and restrict how they can be advertised.
Some of the provisions were too much for some House Democrats, and not just those from tobaccogrowing states. A ban on menthol flavors was criticized by many African American lawmakers, who fear that police could use it as an excuse to harass black smokers. Since the bill would carve out more of a regulatory safe space for premium cigars while banning sales of cheaper flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes, some members of the Congressional Black Caucus said there was a double standard.
Some tobacco-state lawmakers and Congressional Black Caucus members argued that if Congress wanted to outlaw menthol, it should just ban all tobacco products altogether. “Unless we’re going to ban tobacco, why are we going to tell people who are adults what kind of legal products to use?” asked Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va. “I think that’s inconsistent with how we govern.”
The bill could also effectively ban hookah smoking, which almost always uses flavored products, fueling concerns from communities of Middle Eastern descent.