Fred Upton: “It is time to stop this Federal subsidy of a crop that is both addictive and causes cancer. The passage of this…”

“It is time to stop this Federal subsidy of a crop that is both addictive and causes cancer. The passage of this amendment does not stop small tobacco farmers from growing tobacco. It just says we will stop one of the subsidies, one of the incentives for them to do so. Earlier today we read the debate on the Durbin amendment which bans smoking on airplanes from a couple of years ago. Many of the same folks that are arguing for a ``no'' vote were the same folks arguing ``no'' then. Guess what? The Airline Flight Attendants Union has now filed a $5 billion suit against the airlines for allowing this to happen. Would it not have been nice if they had not been able to file this suit at all and had this Durbin amendment passed many years earlier?”