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The Food and Drug Administration would be able to regulate tobacco products under a bill the Senate is expected to take up as soon as today and which Sen. Richard Burr hopes to rewrite before it passes.

Burr, a Republican, has fought off similar measures for years. But he may be making a last stand this week, as Democrats appear to have enough votes to pass Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.

One Democrat they’re not expected to have on board is Burr’s North Carolina cohort, Kay Hagan. Both of North Carolina’s senators oppose the measure on a number of grounds, including that it would overburden the FDA, which traditionally concentrates on food and drug safety.

“This bill will not do what it’s advertised to do,” said David Ward, Burr’s spokesman. “It will not achieve the goals of lowering tobacco use. ... We need to look at other options.”

Staffers for Burr point to a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that shows costs savings to federally funded health programs would be minimal, while the federal government may forgo some tax revenue.

Burr plans to offer an amendment that would rewrite the Kennedy bill to create a new federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services that would take on the task of tobacco regulation. Burr’s measure would spend $100 million on regulation versus $780 million annually set aside under the Democratic bill.

Supporters of Kennedy’s bill say Burr’s amendment would weaken attempts to curb tobacco use.

Staffers for Burr said they expected to have broad support among the Senate’s Republicans. But it’s unclear how many Democrats will join Hagan in opposing the Kennedy bill.

Tracking Hagan

A former finance staffer for former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is getting ready to launch kayhagantracker.com — a Web site that will, according to its founder, track the doings of Sen. Kay Hagan, who defeated Dole last year.

“Once people go up to D.C., it changes them,” said Matt Bales, 24, a communications consultant in Raleigh. “I want to make sure that the citizens of North Carolina have a way to hold Senator Hagan accountable.”

Bales said he would use the site to aggregate news stories about Hagan as well as list what legislation she sponsors and co-sponsors.

“Everything she does, I’ll relate back to the campaign train and whether she’s beholden to the promises she made to people here in North Carolina,” Bales said.

So why focus on Hagan? “The issues matter more to me than they ever had before,” Bales said.

Hagan’s office is sanguine about the new attention. Referring to a statement he gave to the Web site Politico, Hagan spokesman Dave Hoffman said, “We welcome the attention Mr. Bales is paying to Senator Hagan and the impressive record she’s building on behalf of North Carolinians. ... After paying such close attention to Senator Hagan through this hobby of his, I think we might just be able to count Mr. Bales as a convert, too.”

The site officially launches on Wednesday but is due to go live a few hours before midnight today.

No votes

No votes last week, as Congress was on its Memorial Day recess.
 

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com