The Washington Post sent a reporter to an eastern N.C. tobacco field over the weekend for its story about Sen. Kay Hagan, the only Democrat in the Senate to oppose FDA regulation of tobacco.

"To call Hagan merely a defender of the "golden leaf" industry would be an understatement," the Post wrote. "She is among tobacco's fiercest backers."

The reporter spent time with farmer Pender Sharp, who raises 500 acres of leaf and was among the farmers who lobbied in Washington before last week’s vote.

Hagan, though, was on a personal trip and unavailable to comment for the story. 

N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler wants Republicans to use the recent tobacco regulation votes to unseat Democrats.

Troxler, a Republican, told his state party's convention that Democrats, who control both the state legislature and Congress, were to blame for recent votes in Raleigh in favor of raising cigarette taxes and banning smoking in restaurants and bars, as well as a congressional vote to let the Food and Drug Administration regulate the golden leaf, Rob Christensen reports.

"These things don't happen," Troxler told the crowd, "if you elect consevative people to office."

Sen. Kay Hagan finally got a bit of the limelight today in the U.S. Senate debate over a bill to allow the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco.

But it may have been a bittersweet moment for Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat.

Hagan was the presiding officer in the Senate when it voted to invoke cloture, and limit debate on the bill. The bill, which is opposed by Hagan and Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, is now expected to be approved in a Senate vote on Thursday.

Burr has been much more visible than Hagan in his fight against the bill, speaking for long stretches in the Senate chamber over the past week.

But when it came time to announce that the cloture vote had not gone their way, it fell to Hagan to do the honors.

As U.S. Sen. Richard Burr paced the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, the clerk counted up the votes for his legislation to regulate tobacco someplace other than the Food and Drug Administration.

In the end, his substitute amendment — co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan — lost by a 36-60 vote, Barb Barrett reports.

The Senate is poised to vote Wednesday on another tobacco-related bill -- sweeping legislation that would allow the FDA to regulate tobacco, allowing the agency to restrict nicotine and imposing new rules on advertising.

Burr, a Republican, and Hagan, a Democrat, have worked for the past week to delay or derail the FDA regulation bill.

Their amendment would have instead created a new agency to regulate tobacco, with fewer restrictions than the underlying bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid allowed a vote on the Burr/Hagan substitute amendment, but it was never expected to pass.

Burr, of Winston-Salem, and Hagan, of Greensboro, both hail from cities with their own tobacco companies. North Carolina is the top tobacco-growing state in the country. 

North Carolina’s pro-tobacco House members failed to block legislation today that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarettes, snuff and other tobacco products.

The final floor vote, 298-112, showed overwhelming support for the legislation by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman of California, a powerful Democrat and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, reports Barbara Barrett.

The bill would allow the FDA to restrict the amount of harmful chemicals in tobacco products, extensively cut advertising and require flashier, larger warnings on packages.
Waxman’s bill was supported over an alternative offered in part by U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Lumberton Democrat, along with U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer, an Indiana Republican.

McIntyre had said he worried about more government regulation on tobacco farms, a key industry in his district.

More after the jump

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Steve Troxler will speak to Congress Thursday.

The Republican state agriculture commissioner will testify before the House Subcommittee on Rural Development about the potential impact of federal regulation of tobacco on farmers.

He was invited by U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Lumberton Democrat who chairs the subcommittee.

Congress is considering a bill to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. An alternative proposed by Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan would create a new agency.

Troxler will speak at 10 a.m.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids opposes a bill from North Carolina's senators.

The anti-smoking advocacy group said this afternoon that a proposal from Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan to create a new agency to regulate tobacco falls short.

The two senators proposed the bill as an alternative to legislation currently working its way through Congress that would give the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that the Burr-Hagan bill would create an unnecessary new agency without experience in tobacco, tie the hands of regulators and create loopholes for tobacco companies.

"Congress should not be distracted by this weak legislation," he said in a statement.

Chris Walker, a spokesman for Burr, said that he hopes lawmakers and other groups will seriously consider the bill, which was introduced today.

"I'm curious if they've even had a chance to read it," he said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr has a long history with the FDA.

As a freshman Congressman in 1995, the Winston-Salem Republican attempted to privatize the Food and Drug Administration's review of new products, saying the process took too long to get valuable products on the market. 

"The FDA is riddled with mismanagement, abuse and no clear focus as to what its core mission is," he said in an article on Nov. 13 of that year.

Burr had the backing of House Speaker Newt Gingrich in that mission, which he said was unrelated to the agency's desire to regulate cigarettes. (That effort fizzled when the U.S. Supreme Court said in 2000 that the agency did not have the authority.)

His stance on the agency briefly became a campaign issue in 2003, when a buyout of farmers with tobacco quotas stalled over attempts to link it to FDA regulation. Burr said he would vote for the bill anyway.

Though the quota bill eventually passed without the FDA issue attached, Burr's opponent in the Senate race, Erskine Bowles, charged that Burr cost state tobacco farmers hundreds of millions of dollars by not supporting the earlier version more strongly.

Previously: Burr, Hagan oppose FDA tobacco oversight. 

North Carolina's two senators have proposed a new agency regulate tobacco.

As an alternative to the possible regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration. Republican Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan filed a bill today that would create a Federal Tobacco Regulatory Agency.

The bill is an attempt to stave off legislation backed by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and President Obama that would give the FDA regulatory control over harmful chemicals and additives in cigarettes.

Both Burr and Hagan say that the FDA, which oversees such things as cosmetics, prescription drugs and vitamins, is overworked.

"The FDA is overburdened already, and lacks the capacity or the expertise to take on a large, complicated new industry," Hagan said in a statement. "I will not stand idly by while the FDA is put in charge of such a critical industry to North Carolina."

Winston-Salem-based tobacco company R.J. Reynolds opposes FDA regulation bill, although Virginia-based Philip Morris USA supports it.

Burr, who lives in Winston-Salem, has threatened to filibuster the bill, according to the Washington Post.

Previously: Hagan opposes FDA tobacco regulation during Senate campaign. 

Both major candidates for the U.S. Senate say they oppose regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — though incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole goes further than her challenger, Kay Hagan.

Dole and Hagan argue that the FDA does not have the expertise or the resources to regulate the tobacco industry, given the agency's focus on the safety of food and pharmaceuticals, reports David Ingram.

"The last thing on earth we need is to have tobacco added to that list," said Dole, a Salisbury Republican. "They don't have expertise in tobacco, and heaven knows they don't have the funding to do what they're doing now."

Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, said much the same thing in an interview.

"I don't think FDA has the staff to do tobacco regulation at this point in time," she said.

Asked whether she might support FDA regulation if the agency had more resources, Hagan declined to answer. "To me, that's hypothetical," she said.

Dole, in a separate interview, said she is opposed generally.

"This is a back-door way of simply shutting down the industry entirely," Dole said.

In July, the U.S. House voted 326-102 in favor legislation that would for the first time put the FDA in charge of regulating cigarettes. The bill faces tough opposition in the Senate from tobacco-producing states such as North Carolina.

The bill's supporters say it provides the FDA with separate funding to oversee tobacco.