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OCR Page 1 of 38REVISED
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
TOBACCO LEGISLATION PLAN
'97 SEP 17 AM10:04
THE OVAL OFFICE
SEPTEMBER 17, 1997
Acknowledgments: Vice President Gore; Secretary Shalala; Secretary Glickman; Bruce
Reed; David Kessler; Dr. Koop; Members of Congress; Matt Meyers; Attorneys General: Mike
Moore, Christine Gregoire, Bob Butterworth, Grant Woods and Skip Humphrey; heads of AMA,
American Cancer Society and American Heart Association.
Good morning. Today I want to talk about one of the most important things we must do
to keep our country strong and growing into the 21st century. This is a time of prosperity, hope
and optimism for our country. Building on our balanced budget, we have much more to do. And
as we prepare to enter a new century and a new millennium, it is clear: the health of our nation is
absolutely dependent on the health of our people -- and especially the health of our children.
That is why one year ago, I launched the nation's first-ever comprehensive program to
protect children from the dangers of tobacco, by reducing youth access to tobacco products and
preventing companies from advertising to our children. The purpose of this rule was to reduce
youth smoking by 50 percent in seven years. Earlier this year, a federal judge in North Carolina
agreed that the FDA has the authority to regulate tobacco products to protect the health of our
children.
These victories for the public health, along with the aggressive efforts of the state
attorneys general, drove the tobacco companies to the bargaining table and extracted concessions
from them that would have been unimaginable just a short time ago. I want to say a special word
of thanks to the Attorneys General and others who negotiated this settlement: We wouldn't be
here today if not for their foresight and determination. We now have an unprecedented
opportunity to enact comprehensive tobacco legislation, working with members of Congress, the
attorneys general, the public health community, tobacco farmers and others. We have moved
from confrontation, denial and inertia to the brink of action on behalf of our children.
Today, I want to challenge the Congress to build on this historic opportunity by
passing sweeping tobacco legislation that has one goal in mind -- the dramatic reduction of
teen smoking. In the coming weeks I will invite Congressional leaders from both parties to
the White House to launch a bipartisan effort to enact federal tobacco legislation. There
are five key elements that must be at the heart of any national tobacco legislation.
Reducing teen smoking has always been this Administration's bottom line. Now it
must be the industry's bottom line. That is why I believe that the first thing any tobacco
legislation must include is a comprehensive plan to reduce teen smoking, including tough
penalties. These penalties should be non-deductible, uncapped and escalating to give the tobacco
industry the strongest possible incentive to stop targeting kids. One of the surest ways of
reducing youth smoking is to increase the price of cigarettes.
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