NACS Flips Position on FDA – House Committee Approves FDA Bill – We Need Your Help!
Attend May 7-8 Day on the Hill & Combat Recent FDA Developments

AWMA needs distributor members to sign up for Day on the Hill, May 7-8, in Washington, DC, to help combat a recent surge in support for the FDA regulation of tobacco, including the recent change of position on FDA regulation by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, Swedish Match and, now, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved HR 1108 yesterday by a vote of 38 to 12.  This bill would provide sweeping regulatory authority to the FDA to regulate tobacco products.  NACS recently switched its position and has officially withdrawn its opposition to this measure.  While NACS admitted that not all their concerns had been addressed, the Association did obtain some language in the bill that addresses certain issues pertaining to the regulation of retail sales of tobacco.

AWMA remains steadfastly opposed to this bill which would provide overly broad and unprecedented authority to the FDA to regulate virtually every aspect of tobacco manufacture, sale, marketing and distribution.  The bill gives authority to an agency – FDA – that has publicly stated its opposition and indicated it is unable to effectively undertake this proposed new responsibility.  This measure would also institute billions of dollars in new user fees to support the new bureaucracy and regulation.  And, there are real concerns that this legislation could create a sort of “back door” ban on tobacco products through onerous restrictions on the approval, sale, distribution, advertising and promotion of these products - not to mention the authority given to the FDA to dramatically reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes which could affect consumer acceptability of the product.

On a more specific level, this measure would inevitably work a real hardship on the many AWMA members who have small, family-owned businesses through the burdensome record-keeping and reporting requirements that will result from this legislation.  The bill is broadly drafted and for this reason much of the measure’s impact will be ultimately felt by distributors during the regulatory promulgation period within the FDA.  While most of the major provisions in the bill are aimed at the manufacturers and retailers, the distributors will be largely affected through the regulations to come out of the FDA, following the old adage, “the devil is in the details.”

There can be no doubt that human health and safety is of the utmost importance.  However, this issue is extremely complicated and deserves careful, objective deliberation and AWMA is opposed to the way in which this legislation is being rushed through the Congress – legislation that will work a real hardship on many in our industry with little, or no, real benefit to the consumer.  From the distributor perspective, the impact of this legislation would severely curtail the livelihoods of many small business owners across the country by imposing costly layers of regulation and significantly curtailing the availability of a legal product that is important to the economic viability of the distribution industry.

As reported earlier by AWMA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco and Swedish Match have also joined in support of HR 1108.  AWMA respects the right of its manufacturer members, for their own reasons, to hold different views regarding the advantages to their companies of FDA regulation of tobacco.  However, AWMA remains opposed to this effort believing that this legislation is overly broad and is being rushed through Congress without proper deliberation and study of the impact such a bill will have upon virtually every aspect of tobacco manufacture, distribution, marketing, sales and consumer acceptability. In particular, we remain convinced that FDA regulation of tobacco products is likely to wind up being extremely burdensome for distributors.

Register TODAY for AWMA’s Day on the Hill

Combating the effort to bring about FDA regulation of tobacco will be our flagship issue at AWMA’s Day on the Hill, May 7-8, 2008.  We need distributors to register now to come to Washington, DC and participate in Day on the Hill by visiting your legislators and outlining your opposition to FDA regulation of tobacco.

We recognize that it takes valuable time away from distributors’ businesses to come to Washington to participate in Day on the Hill.   However, if this draconian FDA regulation legislation passes – and distributors haven’t participated in our effort stop it  – we believe this failure to participate will be regretted for a long time.

The AWMA staff will set up meetings with distributors’ legislators and provide all of the briefing materials and guidance necessary for the meetings.  Don’t put it off any longer. Register today by simply clicking HERE.