Legislation Update: Hope Springs Eternal

[prairiedruid]

Proposed Legislation

Today, the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the FY 2019 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that would benefit cigars. Like past agriculture appropriations bills, it includes language that would both change the grandfather (predicate) for cigars and other tobacco products regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), as well as exempt premium cigars from FDA control.
What’s different, is this time the language is included as one provision instead of two separate amendments.
An agreement by the Cigar Association of America (CAA), Cigar Rights of America (CRA) and the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) was reached to try to create a single amendment in hopes that it survives in the Senate, something neither provision has been able to do.
The amendment would exempt cigars defined as “premium” from FDA regulations, as well as change the predicate date to Feb. 15, 2007 to April 25, 2014, the latter is the date by which FDA formally announced a draft of its deeming regulations. Previous efforts have tried to change the predicate date to Aug. 8, 2016, the date the deeming regulations went into effect.

We'll see what happens.

 

[aldecaker]

Any idea what definition of "premium" they will be using? Most cigars I enjoy are hand rolled, but I don't know if they are considered "premium".

 

[lordofthepiperings]

"Premium" was defined I believe based on dollar amount for cigars. I think they (the FDA) were going with $10/stick. Wanna say the cigar industry was fighting to get that lowered to $5 a stick.
Just my opinion, but ALL pipe tobacco is premium tobacco.

 

[mso489]

It's a glimmer of hope. I never thought I'd think, good for the lobbyists.

 

[jzbdano]

I thought "Premium" defined hand rolled cigars. No love for grape Swishers.

 

[mso489]

Anything above bagged tobacco is premium. You might argue that pouch and tub tobacco aren't premium, but these days blends in both categories are competitive with tinned tobaccos and good bulk. So unless something is RYO appropriate, I'd say it was premium. No one with "a say" is listening to me, but that's my take.
Here's my anthropological angle: Communities go to great lengths to get retired people to socialize, and they hope to get earlier generations to mingle as well. Correct. It's called a pipe shop.

 

[3rdguy]

Certainly not bad news, thanks for posting this.

 

[craiginthecorn]

I'm starting to hear whispered rumors of the whole thing showing signs of crumbling under the Trump administration.

 

[woodsroad]

I’ve been hearing whispered rumors ever since the garage door hit me on the head back in 1968. They’ve offered me medication for it, but frankly, I like the company.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

Present head of the FDA is a Trump appointee, what I hear from a staffer for my Congressman is that the FDA has made all the changes they will make to the regulatory structure, up to the Courts and Congress now.

 

[brian64]

I’ve been hearing whispered rumors ever since the garage door hit me on the head back in 1968.

Statistical studies show trauma-induced rumors to be 27% more accurate than pathological rumors.

 

[woodsroad]

Correct. The FDA is of the opinion that any additional changes are out of their purview.

 

[btp79]

Forgive my ignorance, but how does exempting premium cigars benefit pipe tobacco? I'm not in the legal field, but I don't see any verbiage that links the two types of tobacco. Can someone with more knowledge spell it out for me?
Thank you,
Billy

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Forgive my ignorance, but how does exempting premium cigars benefit pipe tobacco? I'm not in the legal field, but I don't see any verbiage that links the two types of tobacco. Can someone with more knowledge spell it out for me?

It doesn't, but since cigars are way more expensive, and the cigar industry actually uses classy reps and lobbyists, they get more done for themselves. Meanwhile pipesmokers just bitch about the price of a $20 tin of tobacco at their B&M, whine about an online retailer sending them a dented $8 tin, and yell at kids walking through their yards.

 

[prairiedruid]

it includes language that would both change the grandfather (predicate) for cigars and other tobacco products regulated by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA),

as well as change the predicate date to Feb. 15, 2007 to April 25, 2014, the latter is the date by which FDA formally announced a draft of its deeming regulations

Changing the predicate date would mean more blends would survive the FDA deeming axe.

 

[craiginthecorn]

The main reason that cigars could be exempted and not pipe tobacco is RYO cigarette smokers who shifted to "pipe tobacco" after the new tax laws went into effect in 2007 or thereabouts. RYO devotees don't buy cigars to make cigarettes, but they account for 85+% of tobacco sold as "pipe tobacco". According to FDA statistics, after the tax law went into effect, pipe tobacco sales skyrocketed by over 600%. Now they're trying to close the loophole, unfortunately at our expense. There's no easy way to distinguish pipe tobacco from cigarette tobacco. I don't see an obvious solution, unfortunately.

 

[jaytex1969]