MCCAIN, HATCH DIFFER ON SIZE OF TOBACCO MEASURE

WASHINGTON -- Landmark tobacco legislation moving through Congress would
boost cigarette prices to more than $5 a pack unless modified, a key
Republican critic of the bill said Sunday.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaking Sunday on
NBC's ``Meet the Press'' said his committee will hear testimony Wednesday
that the bill's $1.10-per-pack fee -- aimed at curbing teenage smoking --
would cost a typical husband and wife more than $1,000 a year if they each
smoke a pack a day.

The bill's sponsor, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz.,
appearing on the same program, disagreed with Hatch's cost estimate, but
conceded that the bill needs revision despite its resounding 19-1 passage by
his panel last month.

McCain said his bill would win Senate approval for reasons both patriotic
and ``a little crass.'' Americans expect lawmakers to do something about
teen smoking, he said, and ``there's a lot of money that is going to be
spent there, and politicians are very attracted to that.''

The amount of money in McCain's bill, $516 billion, is well above the $368
billion the tobacco industry agreed to last June with the attorneys general
of 40 states suing it. The McCain formula includes raising the tax on
cigarettes by $1.10 a pack by 2003 and giving the Food and Drug
Administration new regulatory powers over tobacco.

Hatch has proposed a $398 billion package of public health and anti-smoking
programs, which he proclaimed is a ``reasonable approach.''

``I don't want to drive the tobacco companies out of business, which is what
his bill will do,'' Hatch said.

``I guarantee you there is not five votes for what Sen. Hatch just asked
for, and that was to go easier on the tobacco companies,'' McCain replied.
He said public health organizations ``would be apoplectic at Hatch's
proposals.''

Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., part of a bipartisan group that introduced a
separate, hard-hitting anti-tobacco bill, urged his colleagues to
concentrate on the issue. ``Attacking each other or making this a partisan
battle just takes Congress' eye off the anti-tobacco ball,'' Chafee said
after his colleagues' TV appearance.

McCain's legislation sailed through the Commerce Committee on a 19-1 vote
and is expected to be the main vehicle when the tobacco issue goes to the
Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has promised floor action by
late May.

The administration has pushed for the toughest possible legislation, and
President Clinton has praised the McCain bill.

But the industry has said it will not go along because McCain's legislation
is too harsh. There also considerable unease among conservatives in
Congress, particularly in the House, about raising taxes and extending
government regulatory powers.