SENATORS CLASH ON TOBACCO

CONGRESS: Hatch fears McCain's bill will bankrupt the cigarette companies.

WASHINGTON- Sen. Orrin Hatch says sweeping anti-tobacco legislation written
by his Republican colleague Sen. John McCain is fatally flawed because it
would bankrupt tobacco companies.

McCain predicted it will pass and gave two reasons why: Senators feel
pressed to curb teen smoking, and they can't resist the money the law will
bring in from the tobacco industry.

Hatch, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and McCain, head of the Commerce
Committee, are conservatives who usually see eye-to-eye. But they've been
adversaries on the tobacco issue, with Hatch last week saying McCain's bill
was "pitiful."

The Utah senator kept up the attack Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying
the legislation would push the price of a pack of cigarettes up more than 5
dollars and bankruptcy for the tobacco industry.

Hatch said his committee will hear testimony Wednesday that the bill's
$1.10-per-pack fee - aimed at curbing teen-age smoking - would cost a
typical husband and wife more than $1,000 a year if they each smoke a pack a
day.

But McCain, of Arizona, said his bill would win Senate approval for reasons
both noble 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.

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.

McCain said public health organizations "would be apoplectic at Hatch's
proposals."