This week the House of Representatives will vote on two pieces of legislation impacting the tobacco industry.
The first bill, The Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019 (H.R. 2339) seeks to curb tobacco use by minors. For many years, the tobacco industry has made a huge impact on the nation’s youth. In doing so, they have self-inflicted a lifetime tax on themselves in the form of addiction.
Specifically, the legislation will raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21 years-old, instead of 18 years-old. The bill also has many regulatory changes including the creation of graphic health warnings for cigarette packages, the prohibition of flavored tobacco products, and ban on marketing these products to users under the age of 21.
The second bill considered on the House Floor was H.R. 4742 or The Protecting American Lungs Act of 2019. While this legislation also seeks to diminish tobacco use, it does so by hurting the industry through taxes rather than health awareness measures. Among its provisions, H.R. 4742 will create a new excise tax on nicotine used in at a rate of $50.33 per 1,810 milligrams of nicotine. The legislation will also ensure that new nicotine products, like vapes and e-cigarettes, are held to the same standard as traditional tobacco products, like cigarettes.
While Eagle Forum has consistently opposed both tobacco and marijuana vaping, especially targeted at minors through flavored products, the House of Representatives should not be using taxes as a way to curb the products’ use. Allowing “sin” taxes, or a tax on products deemed to be harmful to society, to be created will only lead to the creation of more and more taxes.
Instead, helping prevent children from lifetime addiction should be the priority for not only our Federal officials, but also our local and state leaders. One way to do this is to prevent the sale of flavored nicotine products targeted at minors, like in The Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2019. As Eagle Forum Chairman Anne Schlafly Cori said in regards to the vaping flavor ban proposed by the Trump Administration, “….[W]e’re talking about the health of children on this case…”
Eagle Forum will monitor these two pieces of legislation in the Senate and continue to fight against our children’s susceptibly to become lifetime users.