On the recordFebruary 28, 2020
I thank my colleague for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2339. While I don't doubt the majority's sincere interest in reducing nicotine use among minors, this bill is a premature and poorly thought-out attempt to do so. Instead of building on bipartisan efforts to address teenage smoking, such as raising the age to purchase tobacco to 21, H.R. 2339 broadly overreaches and contains provisions that would unacceptably restrict the choice of adult consumers. It would have a negligible impact on teenage tobacco use and, instead, could actually increase the use of illicit and more dangerous tobacco products. As my colleagues have pointed out this morning, most on the other side of the aisle favor legalizing marijuana, which has proven to be harmful and leads to worse drugs, but will vote for this bad bill. If one is concerned about teenagers, don't push marijuana. This bill does nothing to address the actual injuries we do see from vaping products, which are typically associated with illegal THC vapor products and not the products covered under H.R. 2339. This is a bad bill, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
