Bill to Restrict Online Tobacco Sales Receives Boost on Capital Hill [08/04-3]
Excerpts from: Unplugging Online Tobacco Sales
By Robert MacMillan WashingtonPost.Com
[08/04/03]
An effort to restrict online tobacco sales got a boost on Capitol Hill last
week even as senators scrambled to vote on a number of hot-button topics before
leaving for their summer break.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) was able to get his
colleagues on the committee to approve the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking
-- or PACT -- Act.
The bill, which Hatch and Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) introduced in June, would
try to cut down on the spread of illegal cigarette sales on the Internet by
requiring tobacco merchants to keep records of and report their interstate tobacco
sales. People who are caught evading cigarette taxes would face prison terms
of up to two years, along with up to $100,000 in fines. It also says that merchants
who sell more than 10,000 cigarettes every month would have to register with
the Justice and Treasury departments, or risk being charged with selling contraband.
Those rules currently apply only if the merchant sells more than 60,000 cigarettes
monthly.
Support from the tobacco companies, along with the cash-hungry states and the
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, should go a long way toward boosting the prospects
of the Hatch bill. Also, watch the progress of similar legislation introduced
earlier this month in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.).
House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) plans to mark
up the House bill after the August recess, according to Green and his Democratic
cosponsor, Marty Meehan of Massachusetts.
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