Patty Murray: “we have a difficult decision before us. I believe most, if not all of us, hope the states will do the right thing and…”

“we have a difficult decision before us. I believe most, if not all of us, hope the states will do the right thing and spend the tobacco litigation money to stop underage smoking, reduce adult smoking, and provide critical public health services. I know I am unequivocally committed to those objectives and will therefore support the Specter-Harkin amendment to ensure they do so. That said, I want the states to have the greatest degree of flexibility and discretion in allocating these settlement funds to the health needs of their residents as possible. This amendment does just that. It broadly requires states to spend 20 percent of the settlement on programs to reduce the use of tobacco products, including enforcement, school education programs, and advertising campaigns. It also requires 30 percent to be spent on public health. If we do not reduce smoking and stop at least some of the 3,000 new kids per day from smoking, the federal taxpayer will end up the loser. That is why we should have a voice in directing use of these funds. The Medicare Trust Fund is financially solvent only until 2009, so we need to do everything possible to reduce overall health care costs. If one state does not reduce the deadly impact of smoking, the federal taxpayers will foot the bill. So, all American taxpayers have a big stake in reducing smoking. They have the right to push all states to save their tax dollars by reducing health care costs.”