GOP Adds Tobacco Buyout to Vital Tax Bill ; $9.6B for Farmers, but No FDA Oversight

Source from:  Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.  06/08/2004

The Republican House leadership attached a $9.6 billion tobacco farmers' relief bill to essential tax legislation Friday, a step designed to quickly pass a long-stalled measure that is a high political priority in tobacco-growing states. The measure would pay $9.6 billion over five years to an estimated 400,000 owners for giving up "allotments" that dictate how much they can grow each year. Keith Parrish, director of the National Tobacco Growers Association, predicted up to half the nation's tobacco farmers will quit growing the crop upon a buyout. The government has been reducing the amount of tobacco farmers can sell in recent years due to declining sales and an increased reliance on cheaper imports. Farmers have been clamoring for a buyout for years. But Republicans' narrow control of the House and Senate and the possibility that they could lose it this fall boosted its momentum. The move was hailed Friday by Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., who sponsored the bill and said the White House helped craft it. But the move was criticized by tobacco control advocates and legislators who have worked for several years to couple a grower buyout with legislation that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who co-sponsored the Senate version of the combined FDA-buyout bill, said through a spokeswoman that there would definitely be "pushback" from the Senate if the House passes a standalone buyout. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said, "I oppose a tobacco quota buyout that denies Food and Drug Administration oversight of tobacco products. It would be especially wrong to finance a buyout with taxpayer dollars but not regulate tobacco companies in selling their dangerous products." The tobacco buyout was added Friday by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., to a bill that repeals export tax subsidies that the World Trade Organization ruled were in violation of international trade rules. Because American businesses are losing considerable money from the sanctions allowed by the WTO, the bill is considered must-pass legislation. As outlined in the bill introduced Friday, the tobacco buyout would be financed with funds from the 39-cents-a-pack federal tax on cigarettes. The nation's largest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA of the Altria Group, has lobbied hard for a buyout that would be funded by the tobacco companies themselves. But other tobacco companies, especially the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., have opposed that position, and the House bill agreed with them. This article contains material from The Associated Press. Enditem