How's this for response time?

We received in the mail yesterday a two-inch thick stack of documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The records are correspondence between the FDA and John Edwards when he was still a U.S. senator from North Carolina.

They were in response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act - in August 2001. That's right, it took the federal government more than six years to respond.

But they did apologize for "the extreme delay in responding."

As expected, the man who represents the home of R.J. Reynolds tobacco company voted against a Senate bill today that would require the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco and approve new tobacco products.

Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, said this spring he would do everything in his power to block the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

During Senate health committee meetings last week and this week, Burr submitted several amendments in attempts to change the bill, but was repeatedly shot down, reports Barb Barrett.

Burr believes FDA regulation would take scientists away from work on approving life-saving drugs and would add burdensome regulations that would discourage new products. He also says that the federal government already regulates tobacco through other agencies.

The committee passed the bill 13-8 today. It now goes to the full Senate, where it is expected to pass. Burr plans to submit a substitute bill in the full Senate.