Henry Waxman: “we promised the veterans a couple of years ago when we took away money for their disability based on tobacco smoking and…”

“we promised the veterans a couple of years ago when we took away money for their disability based on tobacco smoking and all of the illnesses that resulted from it, that we would pursue this litigation and get back into the veterans' program money that rightfully belongs in that program because of the deception add bad-doing, fraudulent actions of the tobacco companies. After years of deceit and deception, it is right to hold the tobacco companies accountable for their false promises, misrepresentations, suppression of knowledge about the health risks of tobacco. This rider would stop the litigation. The Attorney General, Janet Reno, today, in a press conference, announced that if this rider goes through, prohibiting the transfer of funds, she will not have the ability to pursue this litigation; she would have to drop the lawsuit. We are not, and I want to emphasize this, because there seems to be some misunderstanding even on the part of the chairman of the subcommittee about our amendment. We are not transferring money from veterans' health care, but only from the veterans' health care fund for litigation, for expenses and legal fees.”