Dianne Feinstein: “Mr. President, Senator Hatch and I have prepared our bill based on some ten hearings in the Judiciary Committee and is…”

“Mr. President, Senator Hatch and I have prepared our bill based on some ten hearings in the Judiciary Committee and is based on, we believe, would create a consensus to create a bill which would do the following: Create a pure tobacco bill with no additional tax measures, no drug enforcement programs, no voucher programs, but which would provide some incentives for the tobacco industry to agree, while increasing the per-pack price, and this is a gross figure, to about a $1.50 over 10 years. This would include excise and State taxes, wholesale and retail markups, manufacturers take. This bill would also ban all tobacco advertising geared toward children and ensures that the FDA has the necessary regulatory authority to regulate the consents, and to limit nicotine. It would also provide, as Senator Hatch has just said, some $92 billion over 25 years for tobacco-related public health programs, and $100 billion over 25 years for research, with tough look-back provisions that require the industry to reduce youth smoking by 67 percent in 10 years. It would also require States to negotiate an allocation of tobacco funds to counties that filed lawsuits before the June 20, 1997, deadline.”