Frank Lautenberg: “So, Mr. President, I hope that we will not be rushed into doing something, get it behind us, get it over with. There is…”

“So, Mr. President, I hope that we will not be rushed into doing something, get it behind us, get it over with. There is much too much to be gained by a thorough review of all of the documents, and we should not ask the President of the United States to come down here pell-mell, willy-nilly with a bill for us to consider and pass. If it takes time, I think that time can be valuably used despite the fact that I would like the assault on our children to stop as quickly as possible. I do not want any more seduction of our children to pick up smoking because the tobacco industry knows, in their spurious attempts at trying to ensure their marketplace, they have directed their marketing at children, trying to get 3,000 kids a day to pick up the smoking habit so a million a year of new smokers will be there to replace that market which is affected by those who are dying prematurely. So, Mr. President, I look forward to an extended debate. I hope that the Durbin-Collins amendment will be supported overwhelmingly to show the American people that we are not going to knuckle under to the machinations of the tobacco industry. We are not going to let it get through the front door or the back door. We want to close down what the tobacco industry has been doing to our citizens for these many years, and it is perhaps going to take more time than would be thought to be necessary to arrive at a proper settlement.”