Biden Administration Opposes Preventing FDA From Banning Flavored Cigars, Menthol Cigarettes

In one of the least surprising turn of events, the Biden administration has announced that it is opposed to a bill introduced by House Republicans that would limit FDA’s ability to regulate flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has said that it will announce finalized rules that would ban flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes as early as this fall. In May, the House Committee on Appropriations introduced a proposed funding bill for various agencies, including FDA, that, amongst other things, would prevent the agency from banning flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes.

In short, the language says that in order to receive money to fund FDA, the agency would be prevented from introducing bans on flavor cigars and menthol cigarettes, as well as introducing rules that limit the amount of nicotine a product can have.

Last week, the Biden administration published a Statement of Administration Policy, announcing parts of the bill that the White House is opposed to. While an informal and non-binding announcement, the memo list items that the White House says President Joe Biden would veto, including the provisions regarding flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes:

Regulating Flavorings in Tobacco Products. The Administration is concerned that the Committee bill also threatens FDA’s ability to protect the Nation’s youth from tobacco products by prohibiting FDA from eliminating menthol in cigarettes, flavors in cigars, and from setting science-based nicotine standards that reduce the addictive properties of these products. Menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars, such as fruit punch and cocoa, increases smoking appeal, particularly among youth and young adults, leads to regular tobacco use, and decreases the likelihood of cessation. More than a half million youth in the United States use flavored cigars. FDA’s work on tobacco is a critical piece of the Administration’s reignited Cancer Moonshot to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years.

Interestingly, the part about nicotine limits is not mentioned, though this document is non-binding.

It’s also unclear how close this language will ever come to passing.

H.R. 4368 is still in its early stages and is likely to undergo many modifications; even then, it’s unclear what chances the bill has of becoming law. Recently, Congress has generally relied on omnibus funding bills, where various funding bills are packaged into one large funding bill. Typically, the language that passes the committees is seen as a starting point for an omnibus funding bill, but last-minute changes are common as part of the process.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.