Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I want to talk about the tobacco bill in the context of where we started and where we are now. I was on the Commerce…”

“I want to talk about the tobacco bill in the context of where we started and where we are now. I was on the Commerce Committee, and although I thought the bill had flaws in the Commerce Committee, nevertheless there was a balance to the bill. Our purpose in the tobacco bill is to try to keep teenagers from experimenting and getting hooked on cigarettes before they have the full judgment to understand that nicotine is addictive. That has been everyone's stated purpose. The President said that. Every Member who makes a speech on the floor says that. Everyone agrees. What we came out of the Commerce Committee with was a bill that I felt had a good chance of reaching the goal of severely limiting the amount of teen smoking in this country. Here is what the bill did, in a broad generalization. It had an agreement from the tobacco companies that they would not advertise. That is a key component to curbing youth smoking, not making it seem attractive to smoke. If you are not advertising with the Marlboro Man, it may not be nearly as appealing to smoke. So the tobacco companies voluntarily agree that they are not going to advertise provided a huge part of the balance of this bill.”