With Conference Gearing Up, Carolina Congressmen Offer Straight Talk on the Tobacco Buyout

WASHINGTON - With negotiations on tobacco buyout legislation heating up, U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington), Brad Miller (D-Raleigh), G.K. Butterfield (D-Wilson), David Price (D-Chapel Hill) and John Spratt (D-South Carolina) provided straight talk today on the political maneuvering that could jeopardize the buyout's future and the security of North Carolina's farm families. The U.S. House of Representatives appointed members yesterday to a conference committee that will iron out differences in the House and Senate-passed versions of H.R. 4520, corporate tax legislation that includes the tobacco buyout. An initial draft of the final legislation does not even include the tobacco buyout, signaling its political peril in a Republican-controlled Congress.

"As a part-time tobacco farmer, as someone who grew up on a tobacco farm and as a representative for North Carolina's farm families, I am disgusted that political games are being played with the tobacco buyout," Etheridge said. "Yesterday Chairman Bill Thomas floated a draft conference report that doesn't even include a buyout. That's unacceptable. Tobacco growers don't want a big fight over FDA; they just want a buyout. In fact, it's become increasingly clear that the success of the buyout is directly tied to the inclusion of FDA regulation. My message to the Republican leadership and the conference committee is two-fold: do what it takes to make a buyout happen and failure to enact a buyout into law before we go home is your failure."

Miller stressed the importance of passing the buyout for North Carolina's farm families. "North Carolina's rural economy is struggling and we desperately need a tobacco buyout. It's hard to believe that the House leadership is sincerely trying to get a buyout passed. This is a game of placing political blame instead of getting anything done."

Price laid out the political landscape of the buyout. "It is abundantly clear that the tobacco buyout our North Carolina's farmers so desperately need cannot pass Congress without FDA regulation. Our farmers understand this very well, and that's why they support the bill the Senate passed by a vote of 78-15. Unfortunately, our House Republican colleagues care less about a positive outcome on the buyout than about providing political cover for themselves and their candidates. The fate of tobacco farmers and the rural economy hangs in the balance."

Butterfield called on Conference Committee members Rep. Richard Burr and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to work toward a compromise that would allow a buyout to occur. "North Carolina's tobacco farmers are on the brink of losing their livelihoods," Butterfield said. "We need common sense and a spirit of compromise to keep that from happening."

For some time, the debate has centered on FDA regulation of tobacco regulation. The House bill did not include FDA regulation, but the Senate bill did. Republican House leadership, including Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has expressed opposition to FDA regulation and have threatened to strip it. Many Senators, including North Carolina's Senator Elizabeth Dole, have stated that FDA regulation is critical to passing the buyout in the Senate. Click here for a list of quotes from Republican Senators along these lines.

The congressmen laid out the possible scenario that the House Republican leadership and conferees could insist on leaving FDA out of the conference report. This scenario could fatally endanger the report's passage in the Senate, resulting in the buyout being removed from the legislation.

U.S. Rep. Richard Burr (R-Winston Salem) is the only North Carolina member of the conference committee. For a full list of members, please visit http://waysandmeans.house.gov/Special.asp?section=1570.

The Senate version of the buyout legislation differs from the version passed by the House. The Senate version would cost $13 billion and would make payments of $8 for quota holders and $4 for growers based on 2002 quota levels. It would be funded by an annual assessment on tobacco companies based on their volume of domestic sales. The Senate version includes regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The version passed by the House would cost $9.6 billion and would make payments of $7 for quota holders and $3 for growers based on 2002. It would be funded through current tobacco excise taxes. The House version does not include FDA regulation, and it would preserve Phase II payments.