/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids:
The House Energy and Commerce Committee today set Congress on a course to take truly historic action to reduce tobacco use by approving legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco products. Today's 39-13 vote underscores the broad, bipartisan support for this legislation. Coming early in the new Congress, it sends a powerful signal that this year Congress will finally enact into law this long-overdue legislation to protect our children from tobacco addiction and save lives. Few actions would make a bigger difference for our nation's health than the regulation of tobacco products, the number one cause of preventable death in the United States.
We applaud House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Representative Todd Platts (R-PA) for their leadership in introducing this strong legislation and quickly moving it forward. Enactment of this legislation into law would represent a tremendous victory for America's health and a bipartisan achievement for the new Congress and President Obama, who co-sponsored the bill while a senator.
This legislation has strong, bipartisan support across the nation and in Congress. It has been endorsed by more than 950 public health, faith, medical and other organizations (see list at www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/fda/organizations.pdf). A poll last year found that FDA regulation of tobacco products is supported by 70 percent of American voters (see details at www.tobaccofreekids.org/fdapoll/). It has been endorsed by scientific authorities including the Institute of Medicine and the President's Cancer Panel. The House of Representatives in July approved the legislation by an overwhelming vote of 326 to 102, and it had 60 Senate sponsors in the last Congress.
This legislation is urgently needed. Tobacco use kills more than 400,000 Americans and costs the nation $96 billion in health care bills each year. Every day, another 1,200 Americans die from tobacco use and another 1,000 children become new regular smokers. Yet tobacco products are virtually unregulated to protect public health. This lack of regulation allows tobacco companies to market their deadly and addictive products to children, deceive consumers about the harm their products cause, make changes to their products without disclosing them (such as manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes) and resist any meaningful change to make their products less harmful.
This legislation would grant the FDA the authority and resources to effectively regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products. Among other things, it would:
-- Restrict tobacco advertising and promotions, especially to children.
-- Stop illegal sales of tobacco products to children.
-- Require larger, more effective health warnings on tobacco packages and
advertising.
-- Ban misleading health claims such as "light" and "low-tar" and
strictly regulate all health claims about tobacco products to ensure
they are scientifically proven and do not discourage current tobacco
users from quitting or encourage new users to start.
-- Require tobacco companies to disclose the contents of tobacco
products, as well as changes in products and research about their
health effects.
-- Empower the FDA to require changes in tobacco products, such as the
removal or reduction of harmful ingredients or the reduction of
nicotine levels.
We urge both the House and the Senate to quickly enact this legislation into law and to resist all efforts to weaken it.
Showing posts with label regulate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label regulate. Show all posts
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Consumers Union Urges Obama Administration to Let States Take Greater Role in Overseeing Banks
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- States should be able to enforce consumer protections that apply to all banks that operate within their borders, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. The group urged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to rescind Bush Administration era regulations that have prevented states from protecting consumers from many of the mortgage lending abuses that contributed to the current foreclosure crisis.
"While federal regulators were asleep at the switch, state agencies were blocked from taking more aggressive action to protect consumers," said Mark Savage, Senior Attorney with Consumers Union. "It's clear we need more cops on the beat. The Obama Administration should make sure states aren't prevented from addressing financial industry abuses that threaten American families and ultimately our economy."
In a letter to Geithner, Consumers Union called on the Treasury Secretary to repeal a set of regulations adopted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2004 that prevent states from enforcing state laws against national banks and their operating subsidiaries. The role of states in enforcing existing laws applying to national banks is a key issue in the debate over the effective regulation of the financial industry and is at the heart of a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, L.L.C. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Court will decide if the New York Attorney General has the right to investigate whether several national banks discriminated against African American and Latino borrowers by charging them significantly higher mortgage interest rates. New York was prevented from investigating the banks after the OCC sued the state and cited its preemption regulation to argue that the Attorney General did not have the authority to take such action.
After the Second Circuit Court sided with the OCC, the Attorneys General of all 50 states urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and reverse the appeals court decision. The Supreme Court agreed and, on February 25, the U.S. must file its brief in the case on behalf of the OCC, an agency under the Treasury Department.
For the past four years, the OCC has been championing deregulatory and minimal standards against states that have been trying to enact higher standards for banks and their operating subsidiaries. When states tried to monitor mortgage lending and protect consumers, the OCC invited national banks to contact the agency, which then wrote letters to banks and state banking agencies asserting that states had no authority to do so. The OCC also sided with national banks in the courts, writing amicus briefs arguing that state monitoring and enforcement in a variety of areas did not apply, and that only the OCC could investigate and enforce laws against nationally chartered banks.
This included the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court last year against Michigan, in which the OCC sided with Wachovia Bank and argued that state mortgage lending laws and oversight could not apply to a national bank's operating subsidiary. Wachovia subsequently found itself on the brink of collapse because of risky mortgages and was forced to sell itself to Wells Fargo. Similarly, the OCC took action to block more aggressive mortgage lending oversight by regulators in California, Georgia, and Ohio - states that have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.
"Under the Bush Administration, the OCC repeatedly sided with the banks and against consumers and the states," said Savage. "If states had been allowed to act, consumers would have been better protected from unfair lending practices that led to the mortgage meltdown. Treasury Secretary Geithner should repeal the Bush era regulations and untie the hands of the states so they can protect consumers against financial industry abuses."
"While federal regulators were asleep at the switch, state agencies were blocked from taking more aggressive action to protect consumers," said Mark Savage, Senior Attorney with Consumers Union. "It's clear we need more cops on the beat. The Obama Administration should make sure states aren't prevented from addressing financial industry abuses that threaten American families and ultimately our economy."
In a letter to Geithner, Consumers Union called on the Treasury Secretary to repeal a set of regulations adopted by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2004 that prevent states from enforcing state laws against national banks and their operating subsidiaries. The role of states in enforcing existing laws applying to national banks is a key issue in the debate over the effective regulation of the financial industry and is at the heart of a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, L.L.C. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Court will decide if the New York Attorney General has the right to investigate whether several national banks discriminated against African American and Latino borrowers by charging them significantly higher mortgage interest rates. New York was prevented from investigating the banks after the OCC sued the state and cited its preemption regulation to argue that the Attorney General did not have the authority to take such action.
After the Second Circuit Court sided with the OCC, the Attorneys General of all 50 states urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and reverse the appeals court decision. The Supreme Court agreed and, on February 25, the U.S. must file its brief in the case on behalf of the OCC, an agency under the Treasury Department.
For the past four years, the OCC has been championing deregulatory and minimal standards against states that have been trying to enact higher standards for banks and their operating subsidiaries. When states tried to monitor mortgage lending and protect consumers, the OCC invited national banks to contact the agency, which then wrote letters to banks and state banking agencies asserting that states had no authority to do so. The OCC also sided with national banks in the courts, writing amicus briefs arguing that state monitoring and enforcement in a variety of areas did not apply, and that only the OCC could investigate and enforce laws against nationally chartered banks.
This included the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court last year against Michigan, in which the OCC sided with Wachovia Bank and argued that state mortgage lending laws and oversight could not apply to a national bank's operating subsidiary. Wachovia subsequently found itself on the brink of collapse because of risky mortgages and was forced to sell itself to Wells Fargo. Similarly, the OCC took action to block more aggressive mortgage lending oversight by regulators in California, Georgia, and Ohio - states that have been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.
"Under the Bush Administration, the OCC repeatedly sided with the banks and against consumers and the states," said Savage. "If states had been allowed to act, consumers would have been better protected from unfair lending practices that led to the mortgage meltdown. Treasury Secretary Geithner should repeal the Bush era regulations and untie the hands of the states so they can protect consumers against financial industry abuses."
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