TOBACCO TALKS MAY WEAKEN INDUSTRY [05/09]

The way the tobacco industry is handling settlement talks may hurt its relationship with key members of Congress, at least according to the Wall Street Journal.

The following are excerpts from Tobacco Talks Strain Industry's Ties With Congress

In early April, North Carolina Rep. Richard Burr circulated a high-profile letter to Capitol Hill supporters of Big Tobacco. The point: to rally opposition against the Food and Drug Administration's efforts to regulate the industry.

The threat of such regulation for years helped define tobacco politics in Congress and was expected to resurface again. A week or two later it did, but in a way supporters such as Rep. Burr, a Republican whose district is home to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., had never imagined.

On April 16, word leaked that the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. unit and other cigarette makers had in late March entered secret negotiations with antismoking forces, offering to accept FDA oversight as part of a deal limiting the industry's civil liability. But the tobacco industry, in rushing to make peace with its enemies, now has some of its valuable allies in Congress fuming.

"Many of us do get a little bit disturbed," says GOP Rep. Edward Whitfield of Kentucky. "If they're getting into an agreement, particularly when it has to come to Congress anyway, it would have been nice if they'd have come to us."

But others say that keeping supporters in the dark about such a momentous policy shift is the kind of move that gives lawmakers pause when their votes are needed in the future.

Longtime supporters, mindful of the mess Republican Robert Dole got into during the 1996 presidential campaign defending the industry, are suddenly looking for safe political ground. The changes could influence expected votes this year on whether to end federal subsidies for tobacco growers as well as action on a settlement itself, if one is ever agreed to.

The industry's willingness to enter into negotiations is giving a boost to an amendment that would end crop- insurance subsidies for tobacco growers, says Sen. Wyden; "This strengthens our hand." The amendment hits farmers, who received $69 million in subsidies last year, but its passage would be a symbolic defeat for cigarette makers. The measure failed by two votes in the House last year and was not called up in the Senate.

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