On the recordFebruary 27, 2020
On Wednesday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 866, providing for the consideration of H.R. 2339, Protecting American Lungs and Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2020 under a closed rule. The rule provides 90 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means. The rule self-executes a manager's amendment to make technical corrections and provides one motion to recommit. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bill in this rule. Mr. Speaker, as our Nation anticipates the probability of a pandemic, here today in the people's House we have the opportunity to save almost six million young lives that would be cut short by nicotine if we fail to act. I am not exaggerating. The CDC has predicted that if the children of our country continue to use tobacco products at the current rate, 5.6 million children will have premature deaths. This is a test of our courage. Let's look at the facts: In 1997, 24.6 percent of all 12th graders reported daily use of cigarettes, and 36.5 percent reported some use in the past 30 days. Thanks to smart, tough policies and a national commitment to reduce cigarette use by children, those numbers dropped to 3.6 percent and 7.6 percent by 2018. Nearly 90 percent of adult smokers began smoking before the age of 18.…
