May 2014

This week, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds theFood and Drug Administration, included report language in the FY15 appropriations bill encouraging the FDA to exempt premium cigars. The report language states, "…the Committee notes that FDA is considering excluding premium cigars from the scope of this proposed rule through Option 2. The Committee believes this could be a viable solution, given that the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act makes little mention of cigars throughout the legislation, and there is even less evidence that Congress intended to focus on the unique subset of premium cigars."

The ATS strongly opposes any effort to exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation and will submit comments to FDA during the public comment period urging the FDA to reject any effort to exempt any tobacco product from FDA oversight.

While the ATS is concerned the FY15 appropriations bill included the questionable report language on premium cigars, we are pleased that the bill did not include any legislative language requiring the Administration to exempt cigars from FDA regulations.