H. R. 1256 
One Hundred Eleventh Congress 
of the 
United States of America 
AT THE FIRST SESSION 
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, 
the sixth day of January, two thousand and nine 
An Act 
To protect the public health by providing the Food and Drug Administration with 
certain authority to regulate tobacco products, to amend title 5, United States 
Code, to make certain modifications in the Thrift Savings Plan, the Civil Service 
Retirement System, and the Federal Employees’ Retirement System, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
DIVISION 
A—FAMILY 
SMOKING 
PRE-
VENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL 
ACT 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This division may be cited as the ‘‘Family 
Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of this division 
is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Purpose. 
Sec. 4. Scope and effect. 
Sec. 5. Severability. 
Sec. 6. Modification of deadlines for Secretarial action. 
TITLE I—AUTHORITY OF THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION 
Sec. 101. Amendment of Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. 
Sec. 102. Final rule. 
Sec. 103. Conforming and other amendments to general provisions. 
Sec. 104. Study on raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products. 
Sec. 105. Enforcement action plan for advertising and promotion restrictions. 
Sec. 106. Studies of progress and effectiveness. 
TITLE II—TOBACCO PRODUCT WARNINGS; CONSTITUENT AND SMOKE 
CONSTITUENT DISCLOSURE 
Sec. 201. Cigarette label and advertising warnings. 
Sec. 202. Authority to revise cigarette warning label statements. 
Sec. 203. State regulation of cigarette advertising and promotion. 
Sec. 204. Smokeless tobacco labels and advertising warnings. 
Sec. 205. Authority to revise smokeless tobacco product warning label statements. 
Sec. 206. Tar, nicotine, and other smoke constituent disclosure to the public. 
TITLE III—PREVENTION OF ILLICIT TRADE IN TOBACCO PRODUCTS 
Sec. 301. Labeling, recordkeeping, records inspection. 
Sec. 302. Study and report. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following:
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(1) The use of tobacco products by the Nation’s children 
is a pediatric disease of considerable proportions that results 
in new generations of tobacco-dependent children and adults. 
(2) A consensus exists within the scientific and medical 
communities that tobacco products are inherently dangerous 
and cause cancer, heart disease, and other serious adverse 
health effects. 
(3) Nicotine is an addictive drug. 
(4) Virtually all new users of tobacco products are under 
the minimum legal age to purchase such products. 
(5) Tobacco advertising and marketing contribute signifi-
cantly to the use of nicotine-containing tobacco products by 
adolescents. 
(6) Because past efforts to restrict advertising and mar-
keting of tobacco products have failed adequately to curb 
tobacco use by adolescents, comprehensive restrictions on the 
sale, promotion, and distribution of such products are needed. 
(7) Federal and State governments have lacked the legal 
and regulatory authority and resources they need to address 
comprehensively the public health and societal problems caused 
by the use of tobacco products. 
(8) Federal and State public health officials, the public 
health community, and the public at large recognize that the 
tobacco industry should be subject to ongoing oversight. 
(9) Under article I, section 8 of the Constitution, the Con-
gress is vested with the responsibility for regulating interstate 
commerce and commerce with Indian tribes. 
(10) The sale, distribution, marketing, advertising, and use 
of tobacco products are activities in and substantially affecting 
interstate commerce because they are sold, marketed, adver-
tised, and distributed in interstate commerce on a nationwide 
basis, and have a substantial effect on the Nation’s economy. 
(11) The sale, distribution, marketing, advertising, and use 
of such products substantially affect interstate commerce 
through the health care and other costs attributable to the 
use of tobacco products. 
(12) It is in the public interest for Congress to enact legisla-
tion that provides the Food and Drug Administration with 
the authority to regulate tobacco products and the advertising 
and promotion of such products. The benefits to the American 
people from enacting such legislation would be significant in 
human and economic terms. 
(13) Tobacco use is the foremost preventable cause of pre-
mature death in America. It causes over 400,000 deaths in 
the United States each year, and approximately 8,600,000 
Americans have chronic illnesses related to smoking. 
(14) Reducing the use of tobacco by minors by 50 percent 
would prevent well over 10,000,000 of today’s children from 
becoming regular, daily smokers, saving over 3,000,000 of them 
from premature death due to tobacco-induced disease. Such 
a reduction in youth smoking would also result in approxi-
mately $75,000,000,000 in savings attributable to reduced 
health care costs. 
(15) Advertising, marketing, and promotion of tobacco prod-
ucts have been especially directed to attract young persons 
to use tobacco products, and these efforts have resulted in 
increased use of such products by youth. Past efforts to oversee
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these activities have not been successful in adequately pre-
venting such increased use. 
(16) In 2005, the cigarette manufacturers spent more than 
$13,000,000,000 to attract new users, retain current users, 
increase current consumption, and generate favorable long-term 
attitudes toward smoking and tobacco use. 
(17) Tobacco product advertising often misleadingly por-
trays the use of tobacco as socially acceptable and healthful 
to minors. 
(18) Tobacco product advertising is regularly seen by per-
sons under the age of 18, and persons under the age of 18 
are regularly exposed to tobacco product promotional efforts. 
(19) Through advertisements during and sponsorship of 
sporting events, tobacco has become strongly associated with 
sports and has become portrayed as an integral part of sports 
and the healthy lifestyle associated with rigorous sporting 
activity. 
(20) Children are exposed to substantial and unavoidable 
tobacco advertising that leads to favorable beliefs about tobacco 
use, plays a role in leading young people to overestimate the 
prevalence of tobacco use, and increases the number of young 
people who begin to use tobacco. 
(21) The use of tobacco products in motion pictures and 
other mass media glamorizes its use for young people and 
encourages them to use tobacco products. 
(22) Tobacco advertising expands the size of the tobacco 
market by increasing consumption of tobacco products including 
tobacco use by young people. 
(23) Children are more influenced by tobacco marketing 
than adults: more than 80 percent of youth smoke three heavily 
marketed brands, while only 54 percent of adults, 26 and older, 
smoke these same brands. 
(24) Tobacco company documents indicate that young 
people are an important and often crucial segment of the 
tobacco market. Children, who tend to be more price sensitive 
than adults, are influenced by advertising and promotion prac-
tices that result in drastically reduced cigarette prices. 
(25) Comprehensive advertising restrictions will have a 
positive effect on the smoking rates of young people. 
(26) Restrictions on advertising are necessary to prevent 
unrestricted tobacco advertising from undermining legislation 
prohibiting access to young people and providing for education 
about tobacco use. 
(27) International experience shows that advertising regu-
lations that are stringent and comprehensive have a greater 
impact on overall tobacco use and young people’s use than 
weaker or less comprehensive ones. 
(28) Text only requirements, although not as stringent 
as a ban, will help reduce underage use of tobacco products 
while preserving the informational function of advertising. 
(29) It is in the public interest for Congress to adopt legisla-
tion to address the public health crisis created by actions of 
the tobacco industry. 
(30) The final regulations promulgated by the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services in the August 28, 1996, issue 
of the Federal Register (61 Fed. Reg. 44615–44618) for inclusion
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as part 897 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, are con-
sistent with the first amendment to the United States Constitu-
tion and with the standards set forth in the amendments made 
by this subtitle for the regulation of tobacco products by the 
Food and Drug Administration, and the restriction on the sale 
and distribution of, including access to and the advertising 
and promotion of, tobacco products contained in such regula-
tions are substantially related to accomplishing the public 
health goals of this division. 
(31) The regulations described in paragraph (30) will 
directly and materially advance the Federal Government’s 
substantial interest in reducing the number of children and 
adolescents who use cigarettes and smokeless tobacco and in 
preventing the life-threatening health consequences associated 
with tobacco use. An overwhelming majority of Americans who 
use tobacco products begin using such products while they 
are minors and become addicted to the nicotine in those prod-
ucts before reaching the age of 18. Tobacco advertising and 
promotion play a crucial role in the decision of these minors 
to begin using tobacco products. Less restrictive and less com-
prehensive approaches have not and will not be effective in 
reducing the problems addressed by such regulations. The 
reasonable restrictions on the advertising and promotion of 
tobacco products contained in such regulations will lead to 
a significant decrease in the number of minors using and 
becoming addicted to those products. 
(32) The regulations described in paragraph (30) impose 
no more extensive restrictions on communication by tobacco 
manufacturers and sellers than are necessary to reduce the 
number of children and adolescents who use cigarettes and 
smokeless tobacco and to prevent the life-threatening health 
consequences associated with tobacco use. Such regulations are 
narrowly tailored to restrict those advertising and promotional 
practices which are most likely to be seen or heard by youth 
and most likely to entice them into tobacco use, while affording 
tobacco manufacturers and sellers ample opportunity to convey 
information about their products to adult consumers. 
(33) Tobacco dependence is a chronic disease, one that 
typically requires repeated interventions to achieve long-term 
or permanent abstinence. 
(34) Because the only known safe alternative to smoking 
is cessation, interventions should target all smokers to help 
them quit completely. 
(35) Tobacco products have been used to facilitate and 
finance criminal activities both domestically and internation-
ally. Illicit trade of tobacco products has been linked to orga-
nized crime and terrorist groups. 
(36) It is essential that the Food and Drug Administration 
review products sold or distributed for use to reduce risks 
or exposures associated with tobacco products and that it be 
empowered to review any advertising and labeling for such 
products. It is also essential that manufacturers, prior to mar-
keting such products, be required to demonstrate that such 
products will meet a series of rigorous criteria, and will benefit 
the health of the population as a whole, taking into account 
both users of tobacco products and persons who do not currently 
use tobacco products.