Protecting American Lungs and Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2020
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Protecting American Lungs and Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2020
This bill revises requirements related to the safety, sale, and advertisement of tobacco products, including electronic nicotine delivery systems (e.g., e-cigarettes, e-hookah, e-cigars, and vape pens).
Among other requirements, the bill
requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to implement regulations to require color graphics on the labeling of cigarette packages, depicting the negative health consequences of smoking;
requires the FDA to apply regulations on tobacco products to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes;
generally prohibits the retail online sale of tobacco products, including electronic nicotine delivery systems;
prohibits flavors other than tobacco in a tobacco product;
prohibits the use of flavored products in an electronic nicotine delivery system, except in specified circumstances;
increases the user fees that the FDA collects from manufacturers and importers;
directs the FDA to regulate products containing nicotine not made or derived from tobacco plants (including nicotine from chemical synthesis, recombinant genetic technology, or extraction from non-tobacco plants);
imposes an excise tax on nicotine that has been extracted, concentrated, or synthesized;
provides funding through FY2025 to support public education regarding tobacco regulation, public awareness regarding the harms associated with tobacco use, outreach to medically underserved communities regarding tobacco-use prevention and cessation, research grants related to tobacco-use prevention and cessation, and grants to health centers for tobacco-use cessation treatment;
establishes and provides funding through FY2025 for a demonstration grant program to develop strategies for smoking cessation (including of the use of menthol-flavored tobacco products) in medically underserved communities;
beginning in 2024, waives coinsurance under Medicare for colorectal-cancer screening tests;
specifies that a health insurance plan may still be treated, for certain tax-deduction purposes, as a high-deductible plan even if it does not have a deductible for certain inhalers or nebulizers;
exempts certain cigars from premarket review requirements;
increases civil penalties for certain violations of restrictions on the sale of tobacco products; and
requires the Government Accountability Office to study e-cigarettes.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House" stage on February 28, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 2, 2020: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
FRANK PALLONE (D-NJ) introduced it on April 18, 2019, and 126 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 124 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 18, 2019, 2702 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2383 days ago, on March 2, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers