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OCR Page 1 of 49THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 27, 1997
BRIEFING BY
DOMESTIC POLICY ADVISER BRUCE REED AND
SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DONNA SHALALA
1:15 P.M. EDT
MR. REED: Good afternoon, I'm Bruce Reed, Assistant to
the President for Domestic Policy, and I'm going to talk just for a
minute about this process. I think you have a piece of paper in
front of you that basically describes everything I'm about to say.
Q
We don't.
MR. REED: You don't? I want to make sure you get that
piece of paper, so you don't actually have to listen to what we say.
It's coming, I promise.
We'll go over some of the high points.
Okay, basically the President has asked Secretary
Shalala and me to lead an interagency review of the proposed tobacco
settlement. And this is going to be a thorough public health review
that will involve a number of agencies and departments here within
the White House. I think there are about 10 agencies involved and
several White House offices. We have a great deal of expertise --
Q
Pardon me, sir, but is this the beginning of a new
health act -- national health act, or what?
MR. REED: No, this is --
Q
Is this the beginning of a new national health
program?
MR. REED: No, we're simply going to spend the next
month reviewing the proposed tobacco settlement that was reached
between the Attorneys General and the tobacco industry last week.
There will be about -- a little over 50 senior people
from around the government involved and the review is going to focus
on four basic areas of the proposal. First, there will be a panel
looking at regulatory issues. This is an area that the President
just talked about at the bill-signing event. It will look
principally at the FDA's authority to regulate nicotine as well as
access, advertising, and labeling. It will also look at another
element of the settlement, which is a proposal to limit environmental
tobacco smoke in the workplace. And the regulatory team is convened
by Elena Kagan, who is my deputy here at the White House. It
involves people from HHS, Justice Department, FDA, and consists in
large part of the lawyers and public health experts who put together
the FDA rule in the first place which the President proposed in
August of last year.
The second team will focus on the program and budget
issues, the proposed uses of the settlement funds, including programs
to reduce smoking and to provide children's health insurance. This
team is made up of our top health policy experts. The meetings will
be convened by Chris Jennings from here at the White House, who many
of you know. It also includes Nancy-Ann Min from OMB, Bruce Vladeck
from HHS, and several other top people from HHS.
A third group will be the legal team focusing on legal
issues. This one also will be convened by Elena Kagan, and it will
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