news-record.com

Only tobacco could draw together two North Carolina senators of opposing parties in a lost cause.

Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Kay Hagan staged a tag-team battle over two weeks against proposed Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products. They lost on procedural motions to prolong debate, and Burr’s amendment to provide a more palatable alternative was shot down Tuesday, 60-36. Hagan was the only Democrat who voted for it.

The FDA bill’s final approval Thursday by a 79-17 margin was anticlimactic. It had the support of the Democratic leaders and President Obama. The mood in Washington strongly favors stricter regulation of tobacco.

Nevertheless, Hagan and Burr fiercely defended an industry that still makes a big financial impact in North Carolina. “We are in the midst of an economic crisis and the bill before us today will further devastate our economy in North Carolina by putting thousands of people out of work and exacerbating the already high levels of unemployment throughout the state,” Hagan said on the Senate floor when debate began last week.

She also argued against giving the FDA authority to require the removal of harmful ingredients from cigarettes, “including constituents that are native to the tobacco leaf itself and ... even if the technology does not exist” to do so.

Burr occupied the floor for hours, offering as an amendment the bill he and Hagan had introduced earlier to shift regulatory authority to an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services that would be “responsible solely for tobacco and nothing else.” Of course, its powers would be less than those given to the FDA.

Despite their bipartisan partnership, Burr and Hagan didn’t get anywhere. Tobacco isn’t a sacred cow anymore — not in North Carolina, judging from recent state legislation to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, and certainly not on Capitol Hill, where it’s viewed favorably only as an easy source of tax revenue.

The FDA regulation bill was approved overwhelmingly by the U.S. House of Representatives in April with five North Carolina members voting yes: Mel Watt, Brad Miller, David Price, Bob Etheridge and G.K. Butterfield, all Democrats. That many defections from pro-tobacco solidarity once would have been unthinkable. Three North Carolina Democrats and five Republicans voted no.

Hagan and Burr held an equally weak position in the Senate. Senators from most states might be happy to cripple the tobacco industry if that can be accomplished through FDA regulation. They could reason that lost tax revenue will be offset by savings realized through an eventual decline in smoking-related medical costs, and they probably would be right.

Public sentiment has turned against smoking, and that’s reflected in attitudes in Washington and even Raleigh. Hagan and Burr worked well together but in an increasingly unpopular cause.