Gift to Big Tobacco: House Appropriations Bill Omits Longstanding Language Prohibiting Use of Federal Funds to Promote Tobacco
Statement of Yolonda C. Richardson, President and CEO, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
WASHINGTON, D.C. – For nearly three decades, Congress has included language in appropriations bills (called the Doggett Amendment) that prohibits the use of federal funds to promote the sale or export of tobacco or tobacco products, or to undermine other countries’ tobacco control laws. This language rightly recognizes that the U.S. government should not be in the business of promoting – at taxpayers’ expense – products that kill over seven million people worldwide and nearly 500,000 Americans each year.
Prior to 1998 when the amendment was first adopted, the U.S. government provided the same assistance to the tobacco industry in exporting and marketing its products that it provided to other consumer industries, despite the enormous harm caused by tobacco use. The Doggett Amendment, offered by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett and colleagues, ended these practices.
It is therefore deeply concerning that this longstanding language has been left out of the National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs appropriations bill that was approved Tuesday by a House Appropriations Subcommittee. If the bill is enacted as written, it would open the door for the tobacco industry to leverage the State Department and U.S. embassies to subvert lifesaving tobacco control efforts around the world.
Failure to include this longstanding and bipartisan amendment is a gift to the tobacco industry. There is no reason for Congress to reverse course after decades of precedent, except to help the tobacco industry sell more of its harmful products at the expense of lives worldwide.
The Doggett Amendment reads as follows:
PROHIBITION ON PROMOTION OF TOBACCO. – None of the funds made available by this Act shall be available to promote the sale or export of tobacco or tobacco products (including electronic nicotine delivery systems), or to seek the reduction or removal by any foreign country of restrictions on the marketing of tobacco or tobacco products (including electronic nicotine delivery systems), except for restrictions which are not applied equally to all tobacco or tobacco products (including electronic nicotine delivery systems) of the same type.