Henry Waxman

Mr. WAXMAN

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge).

Mr. WAXMAN. I thank you for the question, Mr. Etheridge. This is an important question, especially for those who represent tobacco-growing districts. There has been some confusion about this point, so let me be clear. It is not the intent of this bill to allow FDA on the farm. The bill gives FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products but not tobacco leaf.

Mr. WAXMAN. I am including in the Record an exchange of letters on H.R. 1256 between the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary and myself. Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC, March 24, 2009. Hon. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Waxman: This is to advise you that, as a result of your having worked with us to appropriately craft provisions in H.R. 1256, the ``Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act,'' that fall within the rule X jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary, we are able to agree to discharging our committee from further consideration of the bill in order that it may proceed without delay to the House floor for consideration. The Judiciary Committee takes this action with the understanding that by foregoing further consideration of H.R. 1256 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over subject matter contained in this or similar legislation. We also reserve the right to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this important legislation, and request your support if such a request is made. I would appreciate your including this letter in the Congressional Record during consideration of the bill on the House floor. Thank you for your attention to this request, and for the cooperative relationship between our two committees. Sincerely, John Conyers, Jr., Chairman.

Mr. WAXMAN. I'll reserve my time and let you go forward. I see there are some of your Members there if they're going to speak on the bill.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. Although some Members may join us shortly, I ask the gentleman how many other speakers he wishes to call on before we close the debate.

Mr. WAXMAN. We're going to reserve the balance of our time.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am ready to move on to the Buyer substitute, and if the gentleman from Indiana is ready to yield back his time, I will yield back my time, and we can go to the substitute, itself.

Mr. WAXMAN. I wouldn't deny you any opportunity to make any points or to show any charts.

Mr. WAXMAN. Is the gentleman ready to offer his amendment?

Mr. WAXMAN. Oh. Well then, I'll reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, we have put in this bill that the FDA has the power to lower the levels of nicotine to a level that would be appropriate for the protection of the public health. We did not allow the FDA, under the legislation, to eliminate nicotine from cigarettes because we're all aware that, if cigarettes were not permitted to contain nicotine at all, that would be tantamount to an outright ban on cigarettes. I would not like to see people smoking cigarettes at all, but I'm not for prohibition, and therefore, we did not give the FDA that power to ban cigarettes in effect. Now, it's odd to find that we're criticized for not doing enough and then are criticized for doing too much. You can't have it both ways. I think the FDA is in the position to regulate. We ought to give them that power, and that's why I would urge support for the legislation. At this time, I would like to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Platts), and if he needs more time, I'll yield more to him.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I also yield back my time.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I rise to claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased at this time to yield 3 minutes to a very important member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and its Subcommittee on Health, the gentlelady from California (Mrs. Capps).

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time each side has remaining?

Mr. WAXMAN. Well, I plan to close the debate, and I know that Mr. Buyer has another speaker on his side, so I want to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am going to reserve my time to close the debate, so I will allow the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer) to continue.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose this substitute amendment offered by Mr. Buyer. The bill before us, the Waxman-Platts bill, has been carefully crafted over more than a decade, in close consultation with the public health community. It's been endorsed by over 1,000 different public health, scientific, medical, faith, and community organizations. It is also supported by a prestigious and bipartisan group of former public health officials, including former Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson and Donna Shalala; former Surgeons General, David Satcher and Richard Carmona; former CDC Director, Julie Gerberding; and former FDA Commissioner, David Kessler. It reflects a strong, reasonable, and comprehensive approach to addressing the tobacco epidemic. Now, this Buyer substitute is deeply flawed. It represents an inadequate response for the greatest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. One of the biggest problems in this substitute is that it places oversight of tobacco under a totally new, untested agency. They create a new government agency that lacks any experience in protecting the public health. FDA is our Nation's primary protector of the public health, and it has both the regulatory and scientific expertise to handle the complex task of regulating tobacco. The agency devoted 10 years to investigating tobacco in the 1990s. It has over 100 years of experience in setting science-based standards to protect and promote the public health. Mr. Buyer's substitute would ignore all of this expertise, would ignore the whole record of all of the public health organizations, and set up a new agency. And the premise of his new agency would be tobacco harm reduction, and he showed us a chart. That chart in effect said that what we should do is try to encourage people to reduce the harm from tobacco by using other tobacco products. There's no evidence to support his approach. He is basing his assumption that current smokers will use smokeless tobacco to quit, but there's no evidence to support this assumption. In fact, the U.S. Public Health Service's clinical practice guidelines finds no evidence to suggest that smokeless tobacco is effective in helping smokers quit. Rather than have smokers quit, it's just as likely that smokeless tobacco can be used to introduce youth to tobacco use and to discourage smokers from quitting. I would submit that what his proposal would do would be to do everything but get smokers to quit, and it does not focus on getting people not to start smoking in the first place. The only evidence one can cite for using smokeless tobacco to quit is inadequate. It's not based on science, and I'm sure it will be a tremendous boon to the smokeless tobacco industry. A second major problem with the substitute is that it fails to provide any dedicated funding for tobacco regulation. Instead, it relies on a future appropriation that may or may not ever come along, and then this new agency is supposed to do something to reduce smoking in this country. It fails to create effective Federal enforcement to prevent tobacco sales to minors. The Buyer amendment would not punish individual retail clerks. Instead, it would fine kids for possession rather than making sure that they don't have access to cigarettes in the first place. The Waxman-Platts bill would instead create a strong Federal enforcement system to ensure that retailers do not sell to minors, while providing adequate procedural protections for retailers. Another flaw, it allows tobacco companies to keep targeting the kids. One of the most critical goals of our bill is to stop tobacco industry targeting of our children. This bill that's being offered as a substitute does nothing to address the problem. It leaves companies free to continue pushing their products on kids and teenagers, and I would submit that that is not a good substitute for the bill that is before us. I'm also extremely concerned that it effectively exempts smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco from any oversight. It assumes that those products are safe. Well, there's no evidence for that. It ignores the range of harm-reduction options that pose far less risk such as nicotine replacement therapies, which, by the way, are already being approved as safe by the FDA, and instead, he wants to substitute smokeless tobacco for smoking cigarettes. The substitute fails to protect consumers from false and misleading claims about reduced harm. It would allow tobacco companies to market products as safer or posing less risk without providing scientific evidence that those claims are actually true. This means that consumers would still be vulnerable to false and misleading claims, and we know those claims: cigarettes are light, cigarettes are low tar. Those are the claims we've heard over the years, and they're wrong, they're dangerous, they're misleading, and nothing would be done to stop those kinds of claims under this substitute. Our bill would allow products to be marketed as less hazardous only when those claims are based on sound science and only when the health of the entire population is considered. And finally, the substitute gives the tobacco industry a vote in advising the agency on scientific decisions. This flies in the face of everything we know about the industry. Big Tobacco has shown repeatedly that it will distort and discard scientific evidence in service of its business objectives without regard to the public health. We don't give drug or device manufacturers a vote in advising the FDA, and we shouldn't do that here. Giving the tobacco industry voting representation on a scientific advisory committee has no precedent. I would submit you can choose between a substitute that's just been offered only in the last month or so or you can vote for a bill that has been reviewed by and approved by the Heart Association, the Lung Association, the Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the AARP, just to mention a few of the thousand groups that oppose the Buyer amendment and support the underlying bill. This tobacco harm-reduction act proposal is no substitute. In fact, it seems to me that the only harm it reduces is harm to the tobacco industry. I urge a ``no'' vote on the Buyer substitute. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. WAXMAN

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be the sponsor of this resolution to authorize the use of the Capitol Rotunda on April 23, 2009 for the annual congressional ceremony to commemorate the Holocaust. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the United States adoption of a national day for Holocaust commemoration. I take great pride that we are one of the only nations to join the State of Israel in observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Heroes and Remembrance Day, on the Hebrew anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Each year, the ceremony here in Washington serves as a centerpiece for similar events observed in communities throughout the United States to memorialize the millions who perished and honor the courage of those who survived. This year's theme ``Never Again: What You Do Matters'' highlights the power of individual actions to stand against genocide and our individual responsibility to relay the history of the Holocaust as its last survivors are now passing on. I would like to thank the Committee on House Administration for its work on this resolution. I encourage all of my colleagues to participate in the ceremony in the Rotunda.

Mr. WAXMAN

Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Nowruz, a traditional Persian holiday taking place this week that celebrates the arrival of spring. Dating back more than 3,000 years, Nowruz is observed by millions of people of Persian descent in the United States, Iran, Iraq, Central Asia, and many other regions of the world. The two-week holiday symbolizes renewal, health, happiness, and prosperity. The holiday's ecumenical values are celebrated by adherents of many religions including Islam, Judaism, Zorastrianism, and the Bahai'i faith. It is considered a special time to share with family and friends and honor cultural traditions. Here in the United States, Nowruz serves to remind us of the many noteworthy and lasting contributions of Iranian-Americans to the social and economic fabric of American society. I am pleased to join Iranian- Americans in my congressional district and others around the country and around the world in honoring this special occasion.

Mr. WAXMAN

Mr. WAXMAN. This will expedite the development of nationwide health information infrastructure that will enhance real-time communication between providers and improve the coordination of care. Finally, the bill would provide $87 billion in temporary funding to assist State Medicaid programs facing surges in caseloads and State revenue shortfalls. The bill would provide a temporary increase in the Federal Medicaid matching rate, FMAP. It balances an across-the-board increase of 6.2 percentage points, with an additional increase targeted at those States with high unemployment. Mr. Speaker, this legislation is necessary to set the course to turn the economy around and deliver on our promise and duty to assist our constituents in this difficult time. I urge my colleagues to approve the conference report.

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in favor of this conference report. Our Nation's economy is foundering. We need to respond. We're in a deep and long recession. Our unemployment rate is over 7 percent, and growing. And we urgently need an economic recovery package to set the Nation on the proper course to rebound. I am pleased the House and the Senate moved rapidly to resolve the differences between the two bills and to get this bill to the President so it can finally take action. The final conference agreement retains provisions that were passed out of the Committee on Energy and Commerce in January in three critical areas that will accelerate economic recovery and protect American families: Broadband, energy, and health. The first piece is an investment in expanding broadband Internet access so businesses and households in rural and other underserved areas can link to the global balance economy. Broadband networks are as important to the Nation's economic success as the postal roads, canals, rail lines, and interstate highways of the past. Unfortunately, the United States has fallen behind other nations in terms of broadband deployment and adoption. This legislation would authorize approximately $4.7 billion for grants to be administered by the Commerce Department and another $2.5 billion in grants to be administered by the Agriculture Department to put people to work building new broadband infrastructure. The second piece we're considering is a major investment in the Nation's energy future. The conference agreement will accelerate deployment of smart grid technology throughout the country, offer loan guarantees for renewable energy and transmission projects, and promote energy efficiency throughout the country. I am pleased that we were able to adopt these provisions. We also will support economic recovery through the creation of thousands of jobs, especially for low- and middle-income Americans, as the Nation dramatically increases the efficiency in which it uses energy and relies upon renewable sources of energy. And the final and biggest piece involves investments in health. And there are three sections. First, the bill would help people who lose their jobs and have no health insurance. It provides temporary subsidies for COBRA premiums to enable workers who had insurance, to hold on to that insurance. The bill would protect health insurance for an additional 7 million Americans. It will also provide an 18-month extension of the health insurance program that helps families transitioning from welfare to work to keep their Medicaid coverage. Second, the bill would provide $19 billion in funding to accelerate the nationwide adoption of health information technology.

Mr. WAXMAN

Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 352, the DTV Delay Act, which passed the Senate last week by unanimous consent. This legislation extends the digital television transition date and makes improvements to the converter box coupon program. In 2005, Congress mandated that as of February 17, 2009, all television stations shut off their analog broadcasts and transmit in digital only. The transition from analog to digital will offer better pictures and sound, more programming choices, and interactive capabilities. It will also serve an important public safety purpose by freeing up spectrum for first responders for nationwide interoperable communications. Finally, it will provide consumers with new and innovative commercial wireless services. Unfortunately, we are not prepared for this transition. The prior administration assured the Committee on Energy and Commerce repeatedly that the transition effort was on track. But on December 24, 2008, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) notified Congress that the converter box coupon program would run out of funding the first week of January and that it would need an additional $250 million to $350 million to meet projected demand. The DTV converter box coupon program is supposed to ease the financial burden of the transition. But it has ground to a halt. There are currently over 2 million households on the waiting list. In addition, the FCC has not adequately planned for call centers and other assistance for consumers who will face technical problems after the transition has occurred. The President's transition team asked Congress to extend the deadline for a brief period. This is not a step that anyone wants to take. But we have no good alternative. Without a short, one-time extension, millions of households will lose all television reception. The measure before us extends the date of the transition to June 12 and extends the coupon program date until July 31, 2009. It will also allow those who hold expired coupons--or never received their coupons because of problems with third-class mail--to reapply. Moreover, the economic recovery package that the House passed last week includes $650 million to fix the coupon program and intensify consumer education and support. S. 352 also takes steps to lessen the impact on other affected parties, including public safety, broadcasters, and wireless licensees. I am pleased that this bill has broad support in the public safety community, including the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). It has the support of the two biggest winners of spectrum that will be vacated as a result of the DTV transition--AT&T and Verizon. It has the support of the National Association of Broadcasters, the major networks, and Univision. And, it has the support of a number of public interest groups, including AARP, Consumer's Union and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to name a few. S. 352 gives the Obama administration the resources it has told us it needs to fix the coupon program and better prepare consumers for the transition. Unfortunately, our time to act on the legislation is short. If we do not pass this measure it is likely that there will be no transition extension. We are less than 2 weeks away from the transition date. This bill must reach the President's desk immediately or time will have run out for the administration to implement the changes necessary to fix the problems with the transition. I urge Members to support this bill.

Mr. WAXMAN

Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 107, I call up from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2) to amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to extend and improve the Children's Health Insurance Program, and for other purposes, with the Senate amendment thereto, and I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. WAXMAN. I yield 1 minute to a member of the Health Subcommittee and the full Energy and Commerce Committee who played a role in this legislation, the gentlelady from Wisconsin (Ms. Baldwin).