Christopher Dodd

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. I yield the floor.

Mr. DODD. That is my general understanding of the provision.

Mr. DODD. I agree with my colleagues from the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues. We are getting close to the time of the vote. I would be remiss if I did not also mention our staff. I often say in a time such as this, Senators get the opportunity to stand at a podium and be heard, but there are literally dozens of people whose names most Americans will never know who make these moments happen. They deserve public recognition because they worked tirelessly, late nights, weekends, around the clock negotiating, working with each other trying to iron out provisions of the bill. On Senator Kennedy's staff: Jeff Teitz, Michael Myers, Ben Olinsky, Terri Roney, Shawn Daugherty, and Portia Wu. Some are in the Chamber. I thank them immensely on behalf of Senator Kennedy. Senator Durbin's staff: Tom Falletti and Sara Singleton have been terrific in this effort. We thank Tom and Sara for their work. Senator Enzi's staff: Greg Dean and Amy Muhlberg. We thank them immensely. They worked hard on this bill. Finally I want to thank Jim Fenton from my office, Rachael Holt, Jeremy Sharp, who is sitting next to me, and Monica Feit. I have gotten a lot of help in this effort, with Senator Kennedy's staff and Senator Enzi's staff. There are members of the majority leader's staff who deserve our thanks as well. We always have to thank Lula, Tim, and others who make it all possible. We thank them all very much for what they do. Again, as Senator Durbin said, and Senator Enzi and others have said, this is a historic moment for our Chamber to be able to do something. Fifty years ago the Surgeon General warned us of tobacco use, and a half century later we are about to insist the agency in charge of food, drugs, cosmetics, and pet food also be able to include tobacco. We are about to do that. The House and Senate bills are similar, and I believe we will have a Presidential signature on this legislation very quickly. On behalf of millions of families across this country and as the father of a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old who do not know anything about tobacco yet, and whose mother does not smoke, never did, and a father who did but stopped, on behalf of my children and millions of children around this country, we are told by the Congressional Budget Office that an 11-percent reduction in youth smoking can happen immediately with the passage of this bill. That may not seem like much, but it is a beginning. We may just reach the goal of my colleague from Wyoming of a 100-percent reduction of young people smoking. My hope is that certainly will be the case. Mr. President, with a little bit of time remaining, I am prepared to yield back the time, and at the appropriate moment, I will ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, as I understand it, we are going to have a vote at 12:30. I ask unanimous consent the time between now and 12:30 be equally divided between the minority and majority.

Mr. DODD. There are over 1,000 organizations that support H.R. 1256. I ask unanimous consent that some of these letters of support be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD. Let me take a couple of minutes. I know my colleague and friend from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, is coming to the floor as well. I think Senator Coburn is going to be here to make a point of order. I will keep an eye out so I do not exceed the time. I want to point out to my colleagues that this is now down to the last few votes on this matter. I had hoped we would have been able to consider some of the other amendments that were being offered. But as my colleagues, I think, are probably aware, one of the amendments to be considered was an amendment offered by my colleague Senator Lieberman. There was objection to that amendment coming up. As a result, we could not reach an agreement on allowing time for the other amendments to be considered, amendments offered by Senator Enzi, Senator Bunning, Senator Coburn, and Senator Hagan. In fact, an amendment offered by Senator Enzi--he and I reached an agreement on that. It is regrettable that we weren't able to get to it. I hope we can fix it at another time. That is an example of what happened when we couldn't get unanimous consent to go forward. Nonetheless, I hope the substitute will be adopted, cloture will be invoked, and we can schedule a vote for final passage, as I believe we will, in the next day. This is important. A lot of work has been done on this bill. As Senator Durbin, our friend from Illinois, pointed out, this is work that has gone on for decades between Republicans and Democrats. It is a bipartisan bill. We spent 2 days on markup, considering amendments, adopting some, accepting some. That brought us to the position we are in today with this legislation. As I have said over and over again over the last number of weeks as we have considered this bill, this is an unprecedented action we will be taking, an historic moment in many ways. For the first time ever in the history of our country, the 100-year-old regulatory agency, the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates all the food and products we ingest and consume as Americans, will now for the first time be allowed to regulate tobacco products. The FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, as I pointed out, not only regulates the food we humans consume but also pets--cat food, dog food, bird feed, hamsters--all those products have to be approved by the FDA. One product we have not been able to legislate because of opposition from the tobacco industry is tobacco products. We are about to change that. My hope is with a vote today and tomorrow, and then agreement with the House, the President will be in a position to sign the legislation that will, first, give the Food and Drug Administration the opportunity to regulate these products and, as important, to determine and set guidelines and regulations dealing with the sale and marketing to young people. It has been said, I know, over and over again, maybe not often enough, 3,000 to 4,000 children begin smoking every day in America. Every day we delay having the FDA take on this responsibility and begin controlling the marketing and sale of these products, we run the risk of more and more children starting the habit. We know that of that 3,000 to 4,000 who start smoking every day, 1,000 of them end up becoming addicted to the products. One in five high school students in my State of Connecticut today smoke. I suspect those numbers are probably fairly uniform across the country. Of that number I have mentioned, the thousand who become addicted, about one-third that number will die from smoking-related illnesses. Four hundred thousand people every year lose their lives as a result of tobacco-related illnesses. Again, this is a self-inflicted wound. Obviously we have known this for a long time. The Surgeon General has warned for years, every scientific study that has been done has cautioned about what happens if people develop the habit of smoking and the dangers associated with it. We talk about loss of life but there are also those who become debilitated through the contraction of various diseases associated with smoking. I apologize for making this case with numbers, but it is so important my colleagues understand where we are and how important this vote is, to be able to do this. We are now already beginning the debate about health care in the country. That debate is going to go on for the next number of months. A major feature of the health care debate is prevention, to try to prevent people from getting the diseases that cost them and their families and our country so much. What better way to take a step toward prevention than to deal with an issue like smoking and tobacco products, which causes so many deaths in our country, so many illnesses. In fact, if you take suicides, murders, AIDS, alcohol-related deaths, automobile accidents, drug-related deaths, and combine all of them, they do not equal the number of fatalities that occur every year as a result of the use of tobacco products. If we are truly interested in making real headway on prevention, what better way than to begin to deal with the issue of marketing and sale of tobacco products to young people. That is what a major part of this bill does. We also provide help to the producing States because we recognize that for farmers in these States, this will be a major adjustment for them economically. This bill accommodates that as well. I say to my friends on the other side, particularly, those who have offered--want to offer some of these amendments, we didn't have a chance to consider some of them, but I want them to know it was not objection on this side to that at all. There were objections to the Lieberman amendment going forward that created this problem. But, nonetheless, the work that has been done on this bill I think is deserving of our support. It is worthy of our unanimous adoption. As I said over and over again, if you were to collect all of the adult smokers in the country--and 90 percent of adult smokers began as children, by the way--but if you asked all of them their opinion on whether we ought to do something about marketing these products to children, I would be willing to venture a guess that 98 percent of adult smokers, if they could speak with one voice today, would tell us to pass this bill. The last thing a parent who smokes wants is their children to start smoking. They know the hazards, they know the damage, they know the heartache that comes with the illnesses associated with these products. On behalf of all parents in the country, smokers and nonsmokers, let us adopt this legislation and take a major step in dealing with the dreaded health problems associated with tobacco products. I see my colleague from Wyoming so let me stop here and give him the remainder of the time he needs to comment on this. I thank him and his staff who have been working on this. I am a late arrival. He worked with Senator Kennedy on this problem long before I was directly involved with it. I thank him for his work.

Mr. DODD. As you know, most new smokers start as children. Every day, approximately 3,500 kids will try a cigarette for the first time, and another 1,000 will become new, regular daily smokers. We should do everything possible to protect our children from the dangers of smoking.

Mr. DODD. The Senator from New Jersey is correct. While the term ``characterizing flavor'' is undefined in the legislation, it is intended to capture those additives that produce a distinguishing flavor, taste, or aroma imparted by the product. Nothing in this section is intended to expressly prohibit the use of any specific ingredient that does not fall into this category.

Mr. DODD. The pending matter will be a vote at 12:30, in a few minutes, on the cloture motion, is that correct?

Mr. DODD. We will go to the vote right away. I appreciate the comments of my friend from Wyoming. I wish the Record to note there were no objections on this side to any of the amendments being offered, the germane amendments. My friend from Wyoming is absolutely correct. I regret that, that we didn't have an opportunity to debate those, but let me say there may be a time and opportunity for us to deal with these on other vehicles as well, but my hope is we can invoke cloture and move forward. I am prepared to yield back the time and proceed to the vote.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I wish to thank my colleagues. This is, again, a strong bipartisan vote on this issue, and it allows us now to get to the final passage. We have had about, I think, three cloture votes on this bill. If we followed the regular order, the vote would occur at 6:05 a.m. tomorrow morning. I am sure the leader will not make us do that, but that may be the price you pay for all the cloture votes we have had to go through. But sometime tomorrow the vote will occur, and the leadership will obviously decide when. Let me again thank Senator Enzi and his staff and Senator Kennedy and his staff. They have gone back many years. I am a place-holder on this. I hope our friend from Massachusetts is watching this because he battled 10 years to get us to this point. If we can make a dent in those 3,000 to 4,000 kids who start smoking every day--the estimates are 11 percent will not start smoking because of what we are about to do on this bill. If we can make a difference in those 400,000 who lose their lives every year and those who contract emphysema and related illnesses, this may be the most important prevention step we take in the short term on our health care efforts. So for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have made this possible, this is a moment they can take great satisfaction in having made a significant contribution to the well-being of Americans. I thank all of them for that and urge a strong vote tomorrow for the passage of the legislation. Then we will work out--and we may not have to work out differences with the House--but if we do, we will then send this bill to the President for his signature, hopefully in the next few days. For the first time in the history of our country, the Food and Drug Administration will be able to regulate tobacco products, and that is a major achievement for our country's children. With that, Madam President, I thank my colleagues again and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I withhold that request.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce The Standards to Provide Educational Achievement for Kids, SPEAK, Act, a bill designed to provide incentives to states to begin holding every child in America to the same high standards. At its core, SPEAK will adopt and implement voluntary core American education content standards in math and science while incentivizing states to adopt them. America's leadership, economic, and national security rest on our commitment to educate and prepare our youth to succeed in a global economy. The key to succeeding in this endeavor is to have high expectations for all American students as they progress through our Nation's schools. Currently there are 50 different sets of academic standards, 50 State assessments, and 50 definitions of proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Act. As a result of varied standards, exams and proficiency levels, America's highly mobile student-aged population moves through the Nation's schools gaining widely varying levels of knowledge, skills and preparedness. Yet, in order for the U.S. to compete in a global economy, we must strengthen our educational expectations for all American children--we must compete as one Nation. Recent international comparisons show that American students have significant shortcomings in math and science. Many lack the basic skills required for college or the workplace. This affects our economic and national security; it holds us back in the global marketplace and risks ceding our competitive edge. This is unacceptable. America was founded on the notion of ensuring equity and opportunity for all. And yet, we risk both when we allow different students in different states to graduate from high school with very different educations. We live in a nation with an unacceptably high high school dropout rate. We live in a nation where 8th graders in some states score more than 30 points higher on tests of basic science knowledge than students in other states. I ask my colleagues today what equality of opportunity we have under such circumstances. This is where American standards come in. Voluntary, core American standards in math and science are an important step in ensuring that all American students are given the same opportunity to learn to a high standard no matter where they reside. They will allow for meaningful comparisons of student academic achievement across states, help ensure that American students are academically qualified to enter college or training for the civilian or military workforce, and help ensure that students are better prepared to compete in the global marketplace. Uniform standards are a first step in maintaining America's competitive and national security edge. While I understand that education is, after all, a state endeavor, we cannot ignore that at the end of the day America competes as one country on the global marketplace. This does not mean that I am asking states to cede their authority in education. What the bill simply proposes is that we use the convening power of the Federal Government to incentivize efforts to create a core set of common standards. I would like to take a moment to recognize the recent remarkable achievement of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with Achieve, Inc, ACT, and the College Board. Just last week they announced that 49 States and territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative and have committed to a process to develop common standards in English language arts and mathematics. They have made a commitment to evidence- based and internationally benchmarked standards, which are scheduled to be developed later this year. This effort is outstanding. Just 2 years ago, when I introduced one of the first bills in the Senate on standards, this type of effort would have been unthinkable. Now, there is strong momentum behind providing all students across the country with competitive and consistent standards. The SPEAK Act, provides flexibility in the creation or adoption of American standards, understanding that there are effective efforts underway that could be integrated into the program of Federal incentives that this bill would provide. The SPEAK Act will task the National Assessment Governing Board with creating or adopting rigorous and voluntary core American education content standards in math and science for grades K-12. It will require that the standards be anchored in the National Assessment of Educational Progress' math and science frameworks. It will also ensure that such standards are internationally competitive and comparable to the best standards in the world, similar to the outline created for the standards being developed through the Common Core State Standards Initiative. States that do participate, while required to adopt the American standards, will be given the flexibility to make them their own. They will have the option to add additional content requirements, they will have final say in how coursework is sequenced, and, ultimately, States, and districts will still be the ones developing the curriculum, choosing the textbooks and administering the tests. The standards provided for under this legislation will simply serve as a common core. The SPEAK Act will develop rigorous achievement levels. It will ensure that varying developmental levels of students are taken into account in the development of such standards. It will provide for periodic review and update of such standards. It establishes an American Standards Incentive Fund to incentivize states to adopt the standards. Among the benefits of participating is a significant infusion of funds for states to bolster their K-12 data systems. No one will deny that our Nation is facing difficult economic times. However, there remains a steadfast commitment to improving education for our students, a commitment that includes working to develop voluntary American standards. I applaud states that realize that despite facing difficult budget realities, holding all students to the same, high standards will be what is best for the future of our nation. These States need and deserve incentives and resources to complete this important work. I should also note that the SPEAK Act has garnered endorsements from businesses, math/science organizations, foundations, and the education community. Through the leadership of Congressman Vernon Ehlers in the House of Representatives it shares not only bicameral, but bipartisan support. Together we have all come together to affect meaningful change in our public schools. We live in an economy where you can no longer lift, dig or assemble your way to success. Today, you have got to think your way to success so that when public education doesn't work, when we fail to compete as one nation, our entire country gets left behind. Low expectations translate to an America that is less competitive on the world stage. If that happens, we are going to wonder why we didn't do anything about it while we still had time. Core American standards will set high goals for all students, allow for meaningful comparisons of achievement across states, and help ensure that all of our students are qualified to enter college. At the end of the day, we all want what is best for our country and parents want what is best for their kids. With core standards, America will begin the work of regaining its competitive edge in the global economy. In the life of every student, equality will be made a little more real with reintroduction of this bill, as the skills and knowledge we expect of them are no longer made contingent on where they reside. I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting the SPEAK Act. As we start holding our students to the same high standards, I expect that we will be amazed at the excellence that follows. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce The Standards to Provide Educational Achievement for Kids, SPEAK, Act, a bill designed to provide incentives to states to begin holding every child in America to the same high standards. At its core, SPEAK will adopt and implement voluntary core American education content standards in math and science while incentivizing states to adopt them. America's leadership, economic, and national security rest on our commitment to educate and prepare our youth to succeed in a global economy. The key to succeeding in this endeavor is to have high expectations for all American students as they progress through our Nation's schools. Currently there are 50 different sets of academic standards, 50 State assessments, and 50 definitions of proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Act. As a result of varied standards, exams and proficiency levels, America's highly mobile student-aged population moves through the Nation's schools gaining widely varying levels of knowledge, skills and preparedness. Yet, in order for the U.S. to compete in a global economy, we must strengthen our educational expectations for all American children--we must compete as one Nation. Recent international comparisons show that American students have significant shortcomings in math and science. Many lack the basic skills required for college or the workplace. This affects our economic and national security; it holds us back in the global marketplace and risks ceding our competitive edge. This is unacceptable. America was founded on the notion of ensuring equity and opportunity for all. And yet, we risk both when we allow different students in different states to graduate from high school with very different educations. We live in a nation with an unacceptably high high school dropout rate. We live in a nation where 8th graders in some states score more than 30 points higher on tests of basic science knowledge than students in other states. I ask my colleagues today what equality of opportunity we have under such circumstances. This is where American standards come in. Voluntary, core American standards in math and science are an important step in ensuring that all American students are given the same opportunity to learn to a high standard no matter where they reside. They will allow for meaningful comparisons of student academic achievement across states, help ensure that American students are academically qualified to enter college or training for the civilian or military workforce, and help ensure that students are better prepared to compete in the global marketplace. Uniform standards are a first step in maintaining America's competitive and national security edge. While I understand that education is, after all, a state endeavor, we cannot ignore that at the end of the day America competes as one country on the global marketplace. This does not mean that I am asking states to cede their authority in education. What the bill simply proposes is that we use the convening power of the Federal Government to incentivize efforts to create a core set of common standards. I would like to take a moment to recognize the recent remarkable achievement of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in partnership with Achieve, Inc, ACT, and the College Board. Just last week they announced that 49 States and territories have joined the Common Core State Standards Initiative and have committed to a process to develop common standards in English language arts and mathematics. They have made a commitment to evidence- based and internationally benchmarked standards, which are scheduled to be developed later this year. This effort is outstanding. Just 2 years ago, when I introduced one of the first bills in the Senate on standards, this type of effort would have been unthinkable. Now, there is strong momentum behind providing all students across the country with competitive and consistent standards. The SPEAK Act, provides flexibility in the creation or adoption of American standards, understanding that there are effective efforts underway that could be integrated into the program of Federal incentives that this bill would provide. The SPEAK Act will task the National Assessment Governing Board with creating or adopting rigorous and voluntary core American education content standards in math and science for grades K-12. It will require that the standards be anchored in the National Assessment of Educational Progress' math and science frameworks. It will also ensure that such standards are internationally competitive and comparable to the best standards in the world, similar to the outline created for the standards being developed through the Common Core State Standards Initiative. States that do participate, while required to adopt the American standards, will be given the flexibility to make them their own. They will have the option to add additional content requirements, they will have final say in how coursework is sequenced, and, ultimately, States, and districts will still be the ones developing the curriculum, choosing the textbooks and administering the tests. The standards provided for under this legislation will simply serve as a common core. The SPEAK Act will develop rigorous achievement levels. It will ensure that varying developmental levels of students are taken into account in the development of such standards. It will provide for periodic review and update of such standards. It establishes an American Standards Incentive Fund to incentivize states to adopt the standards. Among the benefits of participating is a significant infusion of funds for states to bolster their K-12 data systems. No one will deny that our Nation is facing difficult economic times. However, there remains a steadfast commitment to improving education for our students, a commitment that includes working to develop voluntary American standards. I applaud states that realize that despite facing difficult budget realities, holding all students to the same, high standards will be what is best for the future of our nation. These States need and deserve incentives and resources to complete this important work. I should also note that the SPEAK Act has garnered endorsements from businesses, math/science organizations, foundations, and the education community. Through the leadership of Congressman Vernon Ehlers in the House of Representatives it shares not only bicameral, but bipartisan support. Together we have all come together to affect meaningful change in our public schools. We live in an economy where you can no longer lift, dig or assemble your way to success. Today, you have got to think your way to success so that when public education doesn't work, when we fail to compete as one nation, our entire country gets left behind. Low expectations translate to an America that is less competitive on the world stage. If that happens, we are going to wonder why we didn't do anything about it while we still had time. Core American standards will set high goals for all students, allow for meaningful comparisons of achievement across states, and help ensure that all of our students are qualified to enter college. At the end of the day, we all want what is best for our country and parents want what is best for their kids. With core standards, America will begin the work of regaining its competitive edge in the global economy. In the life of every student, equality will be made a little more real with reintroduction of this bill, as the skills and knowledge we expect of them are no longer made contingent on where they reside. I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting the SPEAK Act. As we start holding our students to the same high standards, I expect that we will be amazed at the excellence that follows. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, if I may--I wish to ask unanimous consent to go into morning business at the conclusion of these brief remarks-- there are several amendments that are germane amendments to this bill that we ought to consider, and my hope is that will happen. I will let the leadership determine what the rest of the day will be like, but my hope is we can complete these other germane amendments that are before us. I know there is a package of amendments on other things to be looked at, and I am certainly prepared to do that. My good friend, the Senator from Wyoming, Senator Enzi, is not on the floor at this minute, but he and I have had a good relationship on this bill, and we would like to complete it if we could. We have been now almost a week and a half on this legislation, so it shouldn't take much more to get to final passage. So I make that offer to my colleagues, that they can sit down and see if we can't resolve some of those matters or at least allow for some time for debate on those outstanding germane amendments that are pending.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I further ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak as in morning business for 10 minutes.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. I thank the Chair. I will try and be brief on this. I know I have spoken at some length about the bill before us, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. I wish to begin by again thanking our colleagues who voted yesterday to allow us to move forward by supporting the cloture motion. It took a bipartisan effort and I am grateful to colleagues, both in the majority and the minority, for lending their support to that effort. I am also pleased we are having an opportunity to vote on the Burr-Hagan amendment. There were some questions raised as to whether that amendment would be permissible under a postcloture environment from a parliamentary standpoint. As I told my friend from North Carolina, Senator Burr, even though I disagree with his amendment, I would vote against a point of order if one were raised against it so he would have a chance to make his case. His State is going to be affected by this decision we are making. As I recall, I think he told me there are some 12,000 to 15,000 tobacco farmers in North Carolina, hard-working families who have been in the business for generations. This will have an impact on them. It may not be as dramatic as some suggest, but it certainly will have a negative impact if we are successful in reducing the amount of smoking and use of tobacco products by young children. I am pleased my colleague from North Carolina has had a chance to make his case, along with his colleague from North Carolina, Senator Hagan. Having said I would support his right to be heard, now I wish to take a few minutes to express why I support the underlying bill. This bill has been supported over the years by a substantial number in this body, as well as in the other body, the House of Representatives--as I pointed out in the past, this matter, which has been under consideration for almost a decade, has not become law because neither House of Congress has adopted the legislation in the same Congress. We have ended up with the Senate passing a bill, the other House passing a bill, but never in the same Congress. So for all of these years, the Food and Drug Administration has not been able to regulate tobacco products. We are about to change that if we, in fact, reject the Burr amendment and several others that are pending and give the Food and Drug Administration the power, the authority, to regulate the sale, production, and marketing of tobacco products, particularly to young children. So for the first time, the FDA will have this authority and put in place tough restrictions that for far too long have been absent. This will provide support for families when it comes to how cigarettes are marketed to their children. I am sure my colleagues are tired of hearing me speaking over the last several weeks about the number of young people who start smoking every day. We have been at this matter now for about 2 or 3 weeks, considering the floor action, as well as the action in the HELP Committee, which is the committee of jurisdiction. You can do the math yourself: Over 20 days, 3,000 to 4,000 children every day starting to smoke while we have been deliberating this piece of legislation. Needless to say, I don't know of a single person in this country with an ounce of sense who wants that many children who begin this habit to continue. I don't know of anybody with any sense at all who believes our country is better off if day after day we allow an industry to market products designed specifically to appeal to young people, knowing what danger and harm it causes. Four hundred thousand of our fellow citizens expire, die every year because of smoking-related illnesses--400,000 people. That is more than the number of people who lose their lives as a result of automobile accidents, AIDS, alcohol abuse, illegal drug abuse, and violent crimes with guns. All of those combined do not equal the number of deaths that occur because of people's use of tobacco and tobacco products. That does not include the number of people who lead very debilitated lives, who are stricken with emphysema or related pulmonary illnesses that fundamentally alter their lives and the lives of their families. I apologize to my colleagues for continuing to recite these numbers, but I pray and hope these numbers may have some impact on those who wonder if every aspect of the bill makes the most sense or not. None of us should ever claim perfection, but we have spent a lot of time on this, a lot of consideration on this. There are 1,000 organizations, faith-based, State organizations--leading organizations dealing with lung cancer and related problems and they are all speaking with one voice. They are telling us to pass this bill, pass this bill, and allow finally for the FDA to be able to control the marketing, the selling, and the production of these tobacco products. Absent any action by this Congress, more than 6 million children who are alive today will die from smoking. Mr. President, 1 out of 5 children from my State of Connecticut smokes today, and 76,000 children, we are told by health care professionals, will die prematurely because of their addiction to tobacco. As I mentioned earlier, we are on the eve of passing major health care reform legislation. The centerpiece of that bill, as I hear my Republican friends and Democratic friends talk about it, is prevention. That is the one piece about which there is a great deal of unanimity. How can we deal with health care reform? The best way to treat a disease is to have it never happen in the first place. This bill may do more in the area of prevention, if adopted, than anything else we may include in the health care bill in the short term. The estimates are that 11 percent of young people would not begin the habit of smoking if this bill is adopted. Imagine 11 percent of the young people not smoking of that 3,000 to 4,000 every day who start. That in itself would be a major achievement. My friend from North Carolina, Senator Burr, does not give authority to the FDA. The FDA is 100 years old. His bill creates a completely new agency, an untested agency, to oversee tobacco products. But the FDA is the right agency because it is the only agency that has the regulatory experience and scientific experience and the combination of that with a public health mission. Unlike the Kennedy bill, the underlying bill, the Burr substitute fails to provide adequate resources to do the job. In the first 3 years, if the Burr substitute is adopted, it would allocate only one-quarter of the funding allocated in Senator Kennedy's proposal. The Burr substitute fails to give the authority to remove harmful ingredients in cigarettes, which the Kennedy bill would do. It doesn't go far enough in protecting children and has weaker and less effective health warnings as well. I say respectfully to my friend, setting up and creating a whole new agency, providing a fraction of the funding necessary to get it done, and providing inadequate resources in order to support these efforts is not the step we ought to be taking. All of us can agree that the FDA is basically the agency we charge with the responsibility of regulating everything we consume and ingest, including the products ingested by our pets. The FDA has jurisdiction over your cat food, dog food, and what your parakeet may have, but your child's use of tobacco is not regulated by anybody. Your child's safety, in many ways, is being less protected than that of a household pet. That needs to change. For a decade, we have debated this. We have been through countless arguments. Now we have come down to the moment as to whether this Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, as we did yesterday, will say enough is enough. We have come to the end of the debate. Mr. President, 400,000 people are losing their lives every day, and 3,000 to 4,000 children are starting to smoke, a thousand of whom will be addicted for life, and one-third of that number will die because of the use of these products. That is over with. The marketing, the production, as well as the selling of these products has to come to an end. This is the best way to save money, if you are not impressed with the ethics and morality of the issue. This is a self-inflicted wound we impose on ourselves as a country, knowing the damage it causes, the costs it imposes, the hardships, the horror, and the sorrow it brings to families. I don't know a single person who smokes and wants their child to begin that habit. If they could stand here collectively--the families across this country who are smokers--they would say with one voice: Pass this bill. Please do everything you can to see to it that my child doesn't begin that habit. Ninety percent of smokers start as kids, we know that. So we need to change how we regulate these products. That is what this bill does. It has had tremendous support from our friends, both Republicans and Democrats, over the years. We have never done it together, and we are on the brink of doing that and making a significant change in our country for the better. It is long overdue. When the vote occurs on the Burr amendment, I urge my colleagues to vote against the amendment. I want to do everything I can to help those farmers. The bill makes a difference in providing real help to the farmers. I see my friend from Kentucky. He knows I went to law school there, and he knows I have an affection for the people there. We owe it to them to provide real help so they can get back on their feet. I say to my friend from North Carolina, and others, I know what it means to have an industry in your State face these kinds of challenges, but clearly the challenge to our Nation is to begin to reduce the number of children who smoke and to save lives every year. I say respectfully that there is no more paramount issue for our Nation as a whole. I urge my colleagues to reject the Burr amendment.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Madam President, I further ask--and this has been cleared on both sides--unanimous consent that the vote occur at 5:35 instead of at 5:30.