C.Gar's BlogLegislationNews

Senate Appropriations Bill Dumps Premium Cigar Language

On May 19, 2016, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee debated their version of the Fiscal Year 2017 Agriculture Appropriations Bill and eliminated premium cigar language. This Bill is the sister bill to the U.S. House of Representatives Bill H.R. 5054: H.R. 5054: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017 covered in our prior Blog Post. The Senate Bill, S. 2956: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, is based on the House Bill but eliminates the verbiage that defunds any Food and Drug Administration attempts to “finalize, implement, or enforce” FDA rules on premium cigars.” The Senate Appropriations Committee issued a report to the full Senate recommending that the Bill be considered further.

In short, this sucks. Hopefully, the House will wrestle the Senate to the floor, give them a noogie, and persuade them to add the premium cigar language back in. According to GovTrack.usthe Senate Bill has a 40% chance of being enacted.

The House Bill has the following premium cigar language that is not in the Senate Bill:

“None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the proposed rule with the regulation identifier number 0910–AG38 published by the Food and Drug Administration in the Federal Register on April 25, 2014 (79 Fed. Reg. 23142) if such rule would apply to traditional large and premium cigars. For the purposes of this section, the term traditional large and premium cigar means—

(1) any roll of tobacco that is wrapped in 100 percent leaf tobacco, bunched with 100 percent tobacco filler, contains no filter, tip or non-tobacco mouthpiece, weighs at least 6 pounds per 1,000 count, and—

(A) has a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder and is hand rolled;
(B) has a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder and is made using human hands to lay the leaf tobacco wrapper or binder onto only one machine that bunches, wraps, and caps each individual cigar; or
(C) has a homogenized tobacco leaf binder and is made in the United States using human hands to lay the 100 percent leaf tobacco wrapper onto only one machine that bunches, wraps, and caps each individual cigar; and
(2) is not a cigarette or a little cigar (as such terms are defined in paragraphs (3) and (11), respectively, of section 900 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act).”

c.gar

c.gar loves all things cigar-related. He typically falls in love with cigars that are discontinued shortly thereafter. His first cigar was a Swisher Sweet with a wood tip. Sadly, these are still in production.

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