Wendell Ford

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, may we have order?

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Delaware [Mr. Biden], and [[Page S 13942]] the Senator from West Virginia [Mr. Rockefeller] are necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] is absent because of attending a funeral.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] is absent because of attending a funeral.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] is absent because of attending a funeral.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] is absent because of attending a funeral.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] is absent because of attending a funeral.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] is absent because of attending a funeral.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, may we have order, please? The Senator deserves respect while we listen to this debate.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Madam President, on behalf of the majority leader, I ask unanimous consent that the orders for the three back-to-back votes and the debate with respect to H.R. 1976 be postponed to occur at 12 noon today.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. First, Mr. President, let me thank the floor staff for the effort they put forward all the time and the effort they made last evening to give this Senator a few moments of the Senate's time today, and I want them to know that I do appreciate it. (Mrs. HUTCHISON assumed the chair.) (The remarks of Mr. Ford pertaining to the introduction of S. 1262 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I thank the Chair.

Mr. FORD. I believe I have a standing order this morning that I have up to 20 minutes. Is that correct?

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. FORD. Madam President, therefore, the vote scheduled for 9:45 a.m. has now been postponed to occur at 12 noon and the Senate would instead begin consideration of the foreign operations appropriations bill at 9:45.

Mr. FORD. Madam President, I further ask unanimous consent that at 9:45 a.m. the Senate begin consideration of H.R. 1868, the foreign operations appropriations bill, for opening statements until 11 a.m.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Madam President, I want to talk just a bit about personal freedoms. That notion is so deeply embedded in how Americans define themselves that we fought wars to defend it, marched down every Main Street in America to guard it, and turned politicians out at the polls to protect it. That dedication to personal freedom was at the very core of how our Founding Fathers defined a nation, and it has endured the test of time. Thomas Jefferson said that the ultimate powers of society belong to the people themselves. And, when Government is concerned that people might not be knowledgeable enough to exercise their control in a healthy direction, he wrote, ``The remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform.'' He understood that Government has a mission to inform, but not to dictate, because when Government passes over that line of guidance to coercion, every American's guarantee of personal freedom is irrevocably damaged. I want to say this in the most forceful way possible, Madam President, that no one--no one--supports teen smoking. I am introducing legislation today directed at reducing the number of teenaged smokers in this country. But make no mistake, this legislation is equally driven by the need to prevent Government from regulating the legal choice of adults--of adults--in this country. And it does so by keeping the FDA out of the business of regulating tobacco. It is no secret, Madam President, that the FDA would like to ban tobacco under the guise of regulating teen tobacco use. And that is why when many people in my State hear the phrase ``Big Brother,'' they see the face of the FDA's David Kessler. The other day I heard a radio interview of some stock car racing fans. They had some pretty harsh words for Washington and for the proposed regulations that could have a devastating effect on the sport that they enjoy so much. They used words like ``misguided,'' and phrases like ``Big Brother intruding.'' You see, Madam President, they could not understand how the Government could prevent them from buying a T-shirt or a cap with their favorite race driver and sponsor on it. Plenty of those fans are parents who have no desire to see their children smoking cigarettes and who support commonsense efforts to reduce teen smoking. But [[Page S 13973]] something is clearly wrong when a regulation aimed at young people jeopardizes a sport where fewer than 3 percent in attendance are under the age of 18. We are not just talking about sports fans or patrons of major art shows and performances. We are talking about the truck driver who chooses to wear a Skoal cap. We are talking about adults, whether they work on Wall Street, under the hood of a car, at the bank, or checking groceries, being able to get a pack of cigarettes at a local bar's vending machine, a place where no minor has any business being in the first place. I am introducing this legislation today because I am fiercely opposed to Government interference into the legal decisions of adults in this country. I believe this is an issue we could have solved and still can without FDA intervention by working with industry and the administration. And in fact, many of the larger companies had already made substantial efforts in that direction. But I believe nothing less than complete prohibition is good enough for the regulators over at the FDA and the antitobacco zealots. In fact, I am so concerned about the FDA's intentions to limit adults' rights with regard to tobacco that I believe some legislative solution is imperative to prevent further intrusion into the private decisions of adults in this country. That is why my legislation in no uncertain terms removes any FDA involvement in the regulation of tobacco. But as I said on the day those regulations were announced, no one is here to protect peddling tobacco to minors. No one. And I am here today to follow up with serious, enforceable measures on advertising and access to stop underaged tobacco use. You also find in this legislation retail and marketing restrictions which we incorporate into substance abuse and Mental Health Services Administration rules and State laws already on the books. Under my legislation, we ban outdoor advertising of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products within 500 feet of schools. We ban advertising of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in publications with any significant youth subscriptionship. We ban paid tobacco advertisements or props in movies. We ban cigarettes or smokeless tobacco advertising in videos, video game machines or family amusement centers. We require States to restrict vending machine sales of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco products to supervised locations--bars, private clubs, or places of employment like factories and warehouses. And we require States to limit free sampling of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products and use of coupons to locations where youth access is denied and where proof-of-age requirements have been met. Instead of creating a whole new bureaucracy and turning jurisdiction over to the FDA, this legislation maintains the enforcement scheme of current SAMHSA law, extending it to tobacco sales and marketing restrictions and doubling--I underscore doubling--applicable penalties. These are serious, enforceable measures to combat teenage smoking, but they do not interfere with the legal, private decisions of adults nor do they trample on freedom of speech that the first amendment protects. The same cannot be said for the FDA regulations, which have already sent advertising and tobacco industry lawyers scrambling to the courts setting up lengthy legal challenges where the fight will go on for years and years and years. I have been told by those familiar with constitutional law that recent appellate court decisions and legal reviews have supported restrictions on the location of advertising but not on the content of the advertising. My bill responds to legal precedent, where FDA regulators have tried to circumvent all legal precedent, attempting to control an advertisement's content affecting not just a teenage publication, but a truck driver's baseball cap or a banker's financial magazine. Nor does my legislation put an illegal tax on the industry forcing them to use millions and millions of their own dollars to tell the public not to use their product. Can you imagine that? They are going to ask the industry to put up millions to say, ``Stop buying our product.'' Any other industry would go berserk. There is absolutely no other industry in this country that has been ordered--ordered, Madam President--to pay millions to put themselves out of business. Yet the FDA regulations attempt to raise taxes without any act of Congress. We can address the issues of teen smoking today without new taxes or constitutionally suspect restrictions on advertising rather than waiting years and years and years for the courts to finally settle the matter. When it comes right down to it, whether a teenager gets a pack of cigarettes or not in large part depends on whether an individual store clerk decides to sell it to them. It is already illegal in every State in the this country for that clerk to do so. But because too many store clerks do not feel pressured to enforce this law, we clearly need to change the current environment and leave no doubt in anyone's mind that it is in their best interest not to sell that pack of cigarettes to a minor. We do that through much tougher penalties and by ensuring that States have the enforcement resources they need to back up these laws. My legislation also works to reduce the chances that a teenager will ever walk into that store looking to buy a pack of cigarettes in the first place. I think that is what all of us want, from the administration to my tobacco farmers to the American public. The President is clearly committed to making serious inroads on the issue of teenage smoking. And in his press conference before the August recess he stated his backing of the self-supporting tobacco program and of adults' rights to make their own decision with regard to smoking. Unfortunately, overzealous regulators under the direction of David Kessler have done the President and the country a disservice by going way too far beyond simply protecting our young people, and, instead, their regulations infringe on numerous constitutional rights, invade the privacy of average adult Americans, and take the first step on a short road to prohibition. These overzealous regulators include a clause that essentially gives the FDA total control over tobacco's fate if there is not a 50 percent reduction in teenage tobacco use from 1993 levels--not 1995, but they go back to 1993--within 7 years. In fact, the percentage of teenage tobacco use is already well below the level it was 15 to 20 years ago. While we are willing to discuss additional, reasonable steps, these FDA regulations are nothing more than a guarantee that they are going to be coming back and attempt to expand their jurisdiction even further. I took the President at his word when he said that he prefers a legislative solution. In this legislation, we have taken one of the toughest State laws on the books regarding advertising, and one of the toughest State laws on the books regarding vending machine sales and samples as the basis for a serious and enforceable national policy on teenage smoking. The antismoking advocates talk forcefully about the numbers of teenagers who begin smoking every day. In citing those figures these advocates would be nothing short of negligent if they reject my legislation and allow this issue to be delayed indefinitely by a court fight. They will clearly be choosing a delay over compromise, self- promotion over certain progress. There is no doubt that this legislation is about compromise. But make no mistake, it does not dodge the responsibility of ending teen tobacco use. I think this legislation represents a serious effort at meeting the President's goals on teenage smoking sooner, rather than later. Equally important, by leaving the FDA out of this process, my legislation will not set a course for tobacco that leads to prohibition. Madam President, I believe this proposal establishes a framework which, taken in its entirety, is as tough as the toughest State laws on teenage tobacco use in existence today. I challenge critics to show me a better approach--one equally strong and one equally reasonable. They are guided by common sense, both in the removal of the FDA from the process and in the expansion of laws already on the books. You will not find any new taxes or new bureaucracy, just strong, enforceable measures to end teenage [[Page S 13974]] smoking and teenage tobacco use today. Madam President, I send a copy of my bill to the desk and ask that it be appropriately referred, and I ask unanimous consent that the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from New Jersey and I are friends, and we disagree in some respects on this one particular item. One point I would like to make to the distinguished Senator is that I have made an extra effort to put forward legislation that would do what he wants to do. He does not have any penalty in what he is talking about. Under my bill, if it was law, those clerks would have a penalty. It would be a double penalty. And I think we would stop them. At least they would think before they would sell to possible underage people, or teenagers. So, what we have attempted to do here is not move in and tell an adult--make a decision for him. As I said earlier, one of the things we pride ourselves in is to try to keep Big Brother out of our business. Senator after Senator after Senator has stood on this floor and fussed about FDA. They are not completing their business. They are not getting the job done. They are not approving drugs for the elderly. They are not doing all this. I can go back and give you page after page after page. Now they want to take on this huge responsibility, additional responsibility. And we already have the mechanism to do it: The Federal Trade Commission and Health and Human Services. We already have the vehicle. Why create another bureaucracy? And why should I tax you, indirectly, and say, ``You give me money so I can put you out of business.'' They want $150 million a year. My distinguished friend from New Jersey is proud of the fact that he took a small business and built it into a very large business. But if Government had said to him, ``Give me money so we can put you out of business,'' I do not believe the Senator would have liked that a bit. He will say there is a difference between his product and the one we are discussing here today. That is fine. But the principle is still the same. So we take the vending machine law, the strongest one in the country, and say that if you break this law then the States and the principals are fined; they are double. And we have the mechanism to do it right now. So the constitutional question that we have is another problem, as to the content of the advertisement. I am not going to be voting for an additional tax. I do not believe my friend from New Jersey will vote for an additional tax either. I hope we listen to him as he talks about the additional smokers per day. Every day we delay here, every day we say we are not going to help Ford pass his legislation, means that it is another day's delay. We could do it today rather than tomorrow. I think I have tried my best. But best is, apparently, not good enough. So the FDA is just adding another layer of bureaucracy. They are asking for money, under their regulations. Lord knows how they are going to get it without an act of Congress. The constitutional question on first amendment rights--they have sent the lawyers from the manufacturers and advertising groups all to the courts the same day. So that will be in the courts for years and years and years. So what is happening here, if we can pass my legislation we can get to the root of the problem. We banned advertising around schools. We banned the use of tobacco in movies. We banned the use of tobacco of any form in videos or amusement areas. But we do not say that an adult does not have a choice. So what we are getting ready to do here, in the guise of protecting teenagers, is to go to prohibition. That is my problem. I am trying to be helpful. I am trying my best to be helpful. If he was in my place, I think he would be doing the same thing. But he says he is not and I understand that. But rights are rights. When you become of age you have a right to make a choice in this country. Let us stop them under 18. I am for that, and my legislation will do that. If we just get a little help, instead of delaying the implementation of this law--I think we ought to go ahead and pass it so we can stop, sooner than later, teenage smoking in this country.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent I might proceed as in morning business for 5 minutes.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. He is just reserving.

Mr. FORD. I think the Senator needs to do that, and I hope he would.

Mr. FORD. I just want to be sure that someone who is not here tonight, in all respect to their position and their ability, if it is not in the unanimous-consent agreement and they come in here and object to it--even though the Senator is very persuasive that does not happen--then my friend from North Dakota is excluded, I think, from making his modification once the Senator has moved to table and ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Johnston] is necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from North Dakota [Mr. Dorgan], the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Glenn], the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Johnston], the Senator from New York [Mr. Moynihan] are necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD. Will the Senator yield for a minute? I ask the manager of the bill, should that not be in the agreement? If the offset is found, it has to be agreeable, I suspect, to the manager. You just would not take any arbitrary offset.