Orrin Hatch: “In brief, the concerns highlighted in this letter from the Attorneys General of Colorado, Ohio, Utah and Washington are…”

“In brief, the concerns highlighted in this letter from the Attorneys General of Colorado, Ohio, Utah and Washington are: (1) The difficulties created by enacting legislation without the industry's voluntary waiver of several constitutional prerogatives. The Generals raise specific legal concerns about attempting to legislate in the absence of consent decrees and other voluntary agreements with the industry. These concerns go to several major features of any comprehensive bill: advertising and marketing restrictions (including restrictions affecting retailers, distributors, and advertisers); look back penalties; and document disclosure. We should also take to heart General Mike Moore's observation that, in the nearly three years since it was first proposed, the FDA's rule on tobacco advertising has not gone into effect. We all know the cause: litigation. But by settling the lawsuit, in Mississippi, there is no billboard advertising today, a result that goes far beyond the FDA rule and what the Constitution would permit us to do legislatively. (2) The second concern of the Attorneys General is the untoward effect that the potential bankruptcy of the tobacco industry would entail. Let me be clear about my position on this. I would like nothing more than for the tobacco industry to pay a trillion dollars. But I also want an anti-tobacco program which works. All of the bills before Congress have in common a serious effort to curtail youth tobacco use.”