As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives this morning strongly endorsed new, extensive legislation to regulate tobacco.

The House voted 307-97 to back a Senate version of the bill seals a legislative battle that has stretched over a decade.

The Food and Drug Administration will begin regulating tobacco products with sweeping new powers that will affect everything from cigarette content to marketing. President Barack Obama is expected to move quickly to sign it into law.

Under the bill, the addictive chemical of nicotine could be drastically reduced — though not eliminated. The FDA could alter other chemical content, potentially changing both the taste and potentially the health impacts of tobacco content.

Warnings would cover at least half of tobacco packages. Advertising would be restricted to black-and-white. No tobacco product could be marketed as "reduced risk" without extensive scientific backup.

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)

The U.S. Senate voted to give the FDA authority over tobacco.

In a 79-17 vote, the Senate approved legislation this afternoon that would put oversight of tobacco products under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan had fought the bill, offering an alternative that would create a new agency to regulate tobacco. 

APPLE BITES: This week it was all about Jobs — with a lower-case and upper-case J. The same day that Gov. Beverly Perdue signed into law changes to the state's corporate taxes designed to lure Apple, the company founded by Steve Jobs announced it would build a $1 billion data center. Opponents of corporate incentives, meantime, felt more like the biblical Job, suffering yet again.

BURR'S CRUSADE: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr stood up for tobacco in the Senate. The Winston-Salem Republican spent more than four hours on the floor arguing against a bill to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. He said it would stifle innovation in nicotine delivery systems and hurt the "gold standard" of food and drug oversight. He and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan proposed an alternate bill.

EMPTYING HOUSE? Another state representative is leaving. Rep. Bonner Stiller, a Brunswick County Republican, will step down this month to spend more time with his family. He joins four other legislators this term who've stepped down to accept a gubernatorial appointment (Rep. Linda Coleman) or move to the state Senate (now Sen. Dan Blue) or because they died (Sen. Vernon Malone) or were under investigation (Rep. Cary Allred).

IN OTHER NEWS: An East Carolina University professor will discuss his studies of the vice presidency with Joe Biden. ... Elizabeth Edwards is not interested in running for U.S. Senate, but she will open a furniture store in Chapel Hill. ... Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole will make her first political appearance since losing in November when she introduces one-time GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in Charlotte next week. ... Hagan ran into Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the ladies' room at the Capitol.

A handful of North Carolina tobacco farmers put on their Sunday best this morning and traveled up to Washington with the N.C. Agribusiness Council to try to change minds in the Senate about FDA oversight.

Pender Sharp, who grows 500 acres near Wilson, N.C., said the group wants to remind senators of the families and communities behind the tobacco industry.

The Senate is debating legislation that would put oversight of tobacco products within the Food and Drug Administration. It is opposed by both Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan — but few others in the Senate.

So far, Sharp said this afternoon, the farmers aren't having much luck changing minds.

"Oh no, we'e not having that kind of impact," he said. "We just want to plant seeds in their minds as they engage in this debate. (We want to) put a face to the bill they’re voting on, and talk about the impacts in the community."

Sharp said the group has met with aides to senators from other Southern states that grow some tobacco, including Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jim Webb of Virginia.

Previously: Sharp records robocall for Obama. 

Republican Sen. Richard Burr was back on the Senate floor this morning with his charts.

He spoke — again — about the FDA mission, about restricting tobacco companies' ability to develop less-harmful tobacco, about his doubts that FDA regulation of tobacco would do the most good in reducing levels of smoking, Barb Barrett reports.

He said he and Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, plan to offer their alternative bill tonight in the Senate. Their bill would regulate tobacco in a different agency without many of the restrictions in the underlying FDA regulation bill.

And while watching Burr on the C-SPAN2 this week, check out the ties: Yesterday, he wore green, reflecting the rows of growing tobacco so ubiquitous Down East.

Today, his tie is gold, the shade of cured brightleaf.

How vulnerable is Sen. Richard Burr?

An article in Real Clear Politics this morning says that by a number of measures the Winston-Salem Republican "could be the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country."

But Wake Forest University political science professor John Dinan notes several advantages: He is likable, does not have the problems of Sen. Elizabeth Dole and faces no top-tier Democratic challenger.

"There are no apparent ways in which Burr has rendered himself vulnerable in his first four years," said Dinan. "Unlike Dole, who was vulnerable because of not spending time in the state and not seen as working hard enough to represent North Carolina interests, Burr has no concerns on either of these counts. His main concern is that his name recognition isn't yet as high outside of the Piedmont area as an incumbent would prefer."

The articles adds that Burr's recent efforts to block FDA regulation of tobacco and propose a Republican alternative to health care reform should raise his visibility.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan spoke against FDA regulation of tobacco this afternoon.

In a five-minute speech on the Senate floor, she noted that North Carolina has 12,000 tobacco farmers and over 65,000 jobs tied to the tobacco industry with a $7 billion economic impact on the state.

She said the Kennedy bill would put thousands out of work and worsen the current recession in North Carolina. 

"This broad, sweeping legislation will have a devastating impact on the economy in my state, North Carolina, and on the lives of many of my constituents," she said. 

Hagan argued the bill would give the FDA "extremely broad authority" to regulate cigarettes, allowing the agency to order changes to the makeup of cigarettes.

"This legislation puts the FDA in an impossible situation," she said. 

She closed by saying that she had many friends in North Carolina whose families have grown tobacco for generations. 

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr spoke for another 30 minutes against the FDA regulation of tobacco.

In a second speech on the Senate floor this afternoon, the Winston-Salem Republican made several arguments against a pending bill:

* The Bush administration FDA commissioner said the agency might have to divert drug and food safety funding to pay for it.

* The Kennedy bill would cost $787 million a year; the Burr-Hagan bill would cost only $100 million a year.

* The Kennedy bill would allow the FDA to order reductions in nicotine content, which would force smokers to use more cigarettes.

* The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Kennedy bill would only reduce smoking by 2 percent a year, less than how much it goes down on its own.

* The Kennedy bill would reduce smokeless alternatives that would be less harmful to health than cigarettes. 

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr argued regulating tobacco would weaken the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In a 15-minute speech on the floor of the Senate this afternoon, the Winston-Salem Republican called the FDA the "gold standard" among the world's regulatory agencies for protecting the public health.

Giving the agency responsibility for regulating tobacco would strain its staff, he argued.

"We're going to put more junior employees ... on applications of drugs," he said. "Maybe a young reviewer either delays the approval of that device or that pharmaceutical or makes the wrong decision because the senior reviewer has gone over to do tobacco," he said.

He said the bill would contradict the FDA's mission to protect the public health, since there is no healthy way to use tobacco.

He also criticized a grandfather clause that would leave existing tobacco products untouched, possibly hurting new products such as smokeless tobacco that might reduce smoking rates.

Burr and Sen. Kay Hagan oppose the bill, but only nine other senators joined with them to vote against cloture on the legislation today.

The U.S. Senate voted 84-11 to invoke cloture to proceed with debate on FDA regulation of tobacco.

It was a strong repudiation to Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan's efforts to stop the bill, Barb Barrett reports.

The Senate will begin 30 hours of debate on the bill. Burr will spend most of his time on the floor, arguing against the legislation.

Hagan and Burr's hopes now rest in trying to defeat a second cloture vote later this week to end debate.

Update: The following Republican senators also voted against cloture: Kit Bond, Missouri; Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, Kansas; Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell, Kentucky; Tom Coburn and James Inhofe, Oklahoma; Jim DeMint, South Carolina; and Orrin Hatch, Utah.