The PACT Act will strengthen our tobacco laws to ensure that law enforcement has the tools they need to investigate and prosecute cigarette traffickers.  Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the internet.   

This is not a minor problem.  Cigarette smuggling is getting worse.  In 1998, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had six active tobacco smuggling investigations.  Today there are more than 400.  But the number of cases alone does not sufficiently put this problem into perspective.  The amount of money involved is truly astonishing.  Cigarette trafficking, including the illegal sale of tobacco products over the internet, costs states billions of dollars in lost tax revenue each year.  It is estimated that we lose $5 billion of tax revenue, at the federal and state level, every year.  

The cost to Americans is not merely financial.  Tobacco smuggling has developed into a popular, and highly profitable, means of generating revenue for criminal and terrorist organizations.  Hezbollah, al Qaeda and Hamas have all generated significant profits from the sale of counterfeit cigarettes.  That money is often raised right here in the United States, and it is then funneled back to these international terrorist groups.  We can no longer continue to let terrorist organizations exploit the weaknesses in our tobacco laws to their advantage.   

The common sense approach taken in the PACT Act to combat this problem has brought together a strong coalition of supporters.  The legislation has the backing of the law enforcement community, numerous public health advocates, and tobacco companies.  I am optimistic that we can work together to pass this bill.