SENATE TACKLES BROAD CURB ON SMOKING

WASHINGTON --- The Senate on Tuesday began considering one of the most
ambitious pieces of legislation it has attempted in decades.

The bill proposes to reach across the country to curtail smoking in
most workplaces and public buildings, strip many city streets of
cigarette billboards, eliminate cigarette vending machines, pay for
substantial new medical research and fund an unprecedented campaign to
deglamorize smoking, especially among teenagers.

Seldom has Congress moved so quickly to work such monumental change on
a major industry and to affect the behavior of so many Americans.

The "National Tobacco Policy and Youth Smoking Reduction Act," which
could be voted on by the end of the week, would impose the largest
price increase ever on cigarettes and broad restrictions on a $50
billion industry that was once considered politically invincibles Its
goal is to reduce tobacco's toll on the nation's health and to change
the culture of smoking by stowing teenagers.

That the Senate is considering such change has amazed political
observers familiar with the many ways that complicated legislation can
find a fatal end in Washington. In this case, the driving force has
been an unwavering public disdain for the tobacco industry and growing
insistence on some kind of change.

Added to that is the tantalizing prospect of hundreds of billions of
dollars in new government revenue from the proposed price: hikes. "The
thing that's driving this now is the hunger for money," sFid an
anti-smoking activist, Michael Pertschuk.

Most analysts predict that major legislation will emerge from a
tumultuous week of debate. How forcefully the Senate acts will
determine in part the prospects for similar legislation in the: House
which will take up the issue this summer.

If it survives there, the final legislation would be written after
negotiations among the House, Senate and White House.

"Who dares vote against it?" asked Tom Korologos, a veteran lobbyist.
"I think the thing passes 80 to 20."

Many say they believe the Senate measure will set the ceiling for
stringent antismoking legislation.

It is an audacious exercise for the Senate, where Big Tobacco has
wielded clout for decades. And the coming debate over a bill that the
industry is spending millions to kill underscores the precipitous fall
of tobacco's fortunes in Washington.

As it stands now, the bill would do these things:

- -- Impose a fee of $1.10 a pack over five years on cigarette makers,
which they must pass on to consumers---the biggest government-imposed
increase ever. Ferderal taxes now are 24 cents a pack set to rise to
39 cents in 2002.

- -- Give the Food and Drug Administration broad authority over tobacco
products, including marketing restrictions that would ban tobacco
billboards within 1,000 feet (300 meters) of schools and eliminate
cartoon characters and color in cigarette ads.

- -- Settle multibillion-dollar lawsuits by more than 40 states and
localities against the industry and limit the payment of industry
damages in lawsuits to $6.5 billion a year.

- -- Impose huge penalties, known as ''look-backs," on tobacco companies
that fail to achieve targeted reductions in youth smoking.

- -- Curtail smoking in many workplaces, public buildings and fast-food
restaurants to limit the effects of secondhand smoke.

Checked-by: trikydik@inil.com (trikydik)