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President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he still supported giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products.
In his first public comments on the issue since becoming president, Obama told Southern reporters in a round table interview that “the FDA has an important role to play on an issue that obviously has an enormous impact on the health of the American people.”
In the Senate last year, Obama, who has struggled to quit smoking, co-sponsored legislation to give the FDA authority to oversee cigarettes. The bill failed to pass, but an identical version is advancing in the House this year and supporters expect it to come up in the Senate for a vote later this year.
In the roundtable interview, Obama did not offer specific comments on the House legislation sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., or an alternative proposal introduced Wednesday by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., that would create a separate federal entity separate from FDA to oversee tobacco regulation.
“We’re probably going to have an announcement on this fairly soon, so I don’t want to step on my own story. But I do think that the FDA has an important role to play on an issue that obviously has an enormous impact on the health of the American people. That’s all you’re going to get out of me,” he said.
--Neil Simon and Sean Mussenden
In his first public comments on the issue since becoming president, Obama told Southern reporters in a round table interview that “the FDA has an important role to play on an issue that obviously has an enormous impact on the health of the American people.”
In the Senate last year, Obama, who has struggled to quit smoking, co-sponsored legislation to give the FDA authority to oversee cigarettes. The bill failed to pass, but an identical version is advancing in the House this year and supporters expect it to come up in the Senate for a vote later this year.
In the roundtable interview, Obama did not offer specific comments on the House legislation sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., or an alternative proposal introduced Wednesday by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., that would create a separate federal entity separate from FDA to oversee tobacco regulation.
“We’re probably going to have an announcement on this fairly soon, so I don’t want to step on my own story. But I do think that the FDA has an important role to play on an issue that obviously has an enormous impact on the health of the American people. That’s all you’re going to get out of me,” he said.
--Neil Simon and Sean Mussenden