Press Release - Etheridge Statement on Flake Amendment

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

July 14, 2004

Contact: Sara Lang
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge Statement on Flake Amendment on Tobacco Buyout

WASHINGTON. - U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) issued the following statement today following yesterday's passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of an amendment sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona). The amendment would prohibit government funds from being used to fund the tobacco buyout and is intended to ensure that any buyout be funded by the tobacco companies.

"Reports of the tobacco buyout's death are greatly exaggerated," Etheridge said. "Make no mistake; I oppose this amendment and spoke against it on the floor of the House. However, it is unlikely that the Flake amendment will survive to see another day, and it is doubtful that it will have any effect at all on the ongoing negotiations in the Senate. The fight for our farm families and rural communities to have an honest chance to survive is still very much alive. North Carolina's farmers don't care how the buyout is paid for. All they care is that it gets done this year. I will keep fighting to get this buyout through Congress and signed by the President this year."

The Flake Amendment was passed as an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005. House Appropriations Committee Spokesman John Scofield has said the Flake language would be "dropped like a bad habit" in the conference committee on the bill. The amendment was passed by voice vote, which would make it easier to be removed in conference.

Much of the tobacco buyout legislation introduced would have funded the buyout through user fees on the tobacco companies. In fact, Congressmen Fletcher, Etheridge, McIntyre and Goode introduced a buyout bill last year, H.R. 3160, which would have funded a more generous $15 billion buyout paid for through user fees on the tobacco companies. The vast majority of tobacco state members endorsed that proposition by cosponsoring the bill. Buyout legislation pending in the Senate would also have the companies pay for it. It has the support of every single tobacco state Senator, Republican and Democrat alike.