American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 - Conference Report - Resumed

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
Oct. 9, 2004

AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004-CONFERENCE REPORT-RESUMED

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to discuss the FSC bill. Some may view this as a tax bill, and it is; some have called it the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, and I think that is fair; I am sure it will do that.

But let me say to the Members of the Senate, my colleagues, what this bill could have been, what this bill should have been, and what it was when it left here, when we sent it to the conference committee. What it should have been, what it could have been, what it was was the most important public health bill to be considered by this Congress.

Before the FDA provision to regulate tobacco was stripped out by the conference committee, it was the most important public health bill to be considered by this Congress. It was the most important children's health bill to come before this Congress. Tragically, the conference committee stripped out the FDA provision that would have, for the first time, put the marketing of the sale of tobacco under the same terms and conditions as the sale of every other product in this country. In this bill, which has so many things in it, there just wasn't room, according to the conference committee, for this FDA provision.

This is a sad day for the Congress. This Senate voted on an amendment, 78 to 15, to include the tobacco buyout that helped tobacco farmers, which I supported and continue to support, coupled with, for the first time, having the tobacco controlled like every other product in this country and regulated by the Government. This bill we have in front of us represents a missed opportunity. It is a missed opportunity to help our children, our grandchildren, and the public health. Two thousand children a day in this country start smoking; 400,000 people a year die of tobacco-related diseases. Yet we failed in this bill; we turned our back on this historic opportunity.

I truly believe that in public life, as well as in life as individuals, we are judged not only by what we do, but also by what we fail to do. I think we ultimately are held accountable for what we don't do. So I intend to vote no on this bill. I intend to vote no on cloture because of the failure of the conferees to include this historic provision. We had the opportunity and missed the opportunity to close this loophole in the law, to deal with this anomaly in the law. Every product that comes on the market is regulated. When you walk in the supermarket today and you buy a product, every single product is regulated. The ingredients are on the package. If there is a claim that is made, that has to be substantiated. Every single product, except one, and that product is tobacco-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco; they are exempt. King tobacco is exempt in the law today. That is wrong.

This bill, as we sent it out of the Senate, in the wisdom of the Senate, would have changed that. Yet the conferees stripped out that provision. So we should vote no on cloture and on the conference report.

This was a historic opportunity that will not come again. The coupling of the tobacco buyout and the coupling of the FDA-controlled tobacco-we will not have the opportunity to do that again. This bill, in fact, contained the tobacco buyout. I support that. If this bill passes, the tobacco buyout will be done and we will no longer have the opportunity to couple these together. We will have lost that-let's be candid-political opportunity to put these two together. So we have lost that chance and that opportunity.

A yes vote on this conference report, a yes vote on cloture says it was OK to strip that out. A yes vote says it is OK to turn our backs on our kids once again on this issue. A yes vote says it is OK, the status quo is fine, and business as usual is fine.

How long are we going to tolerate this? How long are we going to say tobacco is different than every other product in this country? How long are we going to say tobacco should not be regulated? How long are we going to say when one goes in and buys products on the market, every other product is regulated, one knows what they are buying but not tobacco? Why should tobacco be different?

Some Members may say, I cannot vote against this bill; there is too much in it. It has too much for my State, too many good things.

There are a lot of good things in there. There are things for my home State of Ohio. There are some things in there that are not that good, but there are some good things in that bill, and I know that.

I have been in politics and Government for 30 years. I have been in the Senate for 10 years. I have cast a lot of votes. When people say, I cannot vote no, when people say I have to do it, I say this to them: I have been in politics for 30 years, and they do not have to do anything. There is nothing that compels anybody to vote any way on any bill. The longer one is doing this, I think the more they realize that.

So I say to my colleagues, they do not have to vote for this bill. They do not have to vote for cloture. There is nothing that compels them to. It is the wrong vote.

Sometimes one has to look at the big picture. Sometimes I think my colleagues have to stand back from what would appear to be the parochial interests and look at the big interests, but I would maintain that if they look at the interests of their State and look at the interests of the people of their State, not to mention the interests of the people of their country, they will come to the conclusion that voting no on the motion on cloture, no on this bill is the right thing to do.

Look at my home State of Ohio. Yes, there are good things in here for Ohio, but I will read to my colleagues the statistics from Ohio. I share them with my colleagues as an example of what their State is probably like as well.

Here are the statistics from the State of Ohio: 22.2 percent of high school students smoke; 12.8 percent of the male high school students use smokeless or spit tobacco. The number of kids under 18 who become new daily smokers each year is 36,800. The number of kids who are exposed-this is all just Ohio, now. The number of kids who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home, 919,000; packs of cigarettes bought or smoked by kids each year in Ohio, 36.3 million; adults in Ohio who smoke, 2,251,000. That is 26.6 percent.

How about deaths from smoking? Adults who die each year from their own smoking, that is 18,900 just in my home State of Ohio. Kids now under 18 and alive in Ohio who will ultimately, if they continue to smoke, die prematurely from smoking, 314,000. Adults, children, and babies who die each year from others' smoking, that is secondhand smoke, is estimated between 1,800 to 3,200.

If we do not care about people, what about dollars and cents? Well, annual health care costs in Ohio directly caused by smoking, $3.41 billion. That is "billion." Portions covered by the State Medicaid program, that is what you and I pay if you are a resident of Ohio, $1.11 billion, and it goes on. Smoking-caused productivity losses in Ohio, that is $4.14 billion; resident State and Federal tax burden from smoking-caused Government expenditures, that is $534 per household.

Those are the figures. I look at this vote and I try to balance the fact that there are some good things that might be in here for my State versus what we could have achieved, what we could have done, and it is a pretty easy choice.

The conference committee had no business scuttling the will of the Senate and throwing out the FDA provision. It was wrong. They should not have done that.