Tom Harkin: “During previous consideration of the appropriations bill on agriculture I offered an amendment, along with Senator…”

“During previous consideration of the appropriations bill on agriculture I offered an amendment, along with Senator Chafee and others to protect America's kids and crack down on illegal tobacco sales. We would do it by providing full funding for the FDA's youth tobacco use prevention initiative. That amendment was debated and received a strong bipartisan vote of 48 Senators, but some of my colleagues expressed concerns about certain aspects of the amendment. Those concerns seemed to focus primarily on the nature of the offset and on whether the FDA initiative should be funded before the outcome of the pending tobacco settlement is known. I have, in good faith, modified my amendment in two important respects that I believe fully address both concerns. First, this amendment contains an entirely different offset. It would reduce spending by the USDA Commodity Credit Corporation on automated data processing and information technology equipment during fiscal year 1998 by $29.1 million, just enough to allow full funding for the FDA initiative. Second, to clear up any uncertainty about the relationship of the FDA initiative to the pending tobacco settlement, this amendment contains a sunset provision that would become effective if funding for FDA youth tobacco use prevention activities becomes available as a result of the tobacco settlement.”