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The American Wholesale Marketers Association (AWMA) and the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) this week issued a joint letter to all 435 U.S. Representatives explaining serious concerns both national organizations have with the pending bill in Congress to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products.

"While a number of companies and organizations have recently changed their positions and decided to support this bill, we remain vigorously opposed to it," said AWMA President Scott Ramminger in a prepared statement. He noted that AWMA members will be taking this message directly to their elected officials on May 7 and 8 when they are in Washington, D.C. for the annual AWMA Day on the Hill program.

As national wholesale and retail trade organizations representing thousands of family-owned businesses in all 50 states, AWMA and NATO remain firmly opposed to H.R. 1108 which would grant the FDA overly broad and sweeping powers to regulate the manufacturer, distribution, promotion and sale of tobacco products. The collective memberships are comprised of tobacco wholesalers, tobacco stores and other retailers (including convenience stores) that sell tobacco products.

AWMA and NATO have serious concerns regarding the unprecedented authority that Congress seeks to bestow upon the FDA to regulate virtually every aspect of the tobacco industry. One main concerns with H.R. 1108 is that the FDA will be granted sweeping, virtually unlimited power to adopt future regulations which will severely impact the wholesale and retail industries.

The scope of the regulatory authority being granted in Section 906(d)(1) of H.R. 1108 to the FDA would allow the agency to adopt restrictions or regulations involving tobacco products based solely on public health concerns with no statutory obligation to take into account the negative impact on the thousands of small businesses that sell tobacco products. The FDA would not be required to consider the financial hardships that wholesale distributors and retailers would suffer from the loss of product promotional compensation and complying with onerous recordkeeping and reporting requirements, nor the out-of-pocket costs they would incur from remodeling store displays and checkout areas to conform to new regulations.

A second concern stated in the letter concerns the powers granted to the FDA, other federal agencies, states, counties and cities which could ultimately lead to the prohibition of tobacco products. It is conceivable that when drafting regulations, the FDA could adopt such onerous restrictions on the distribution, promotion, advertising and sale of tobacco products that wholesalers and retailers would be unable to comply with such regulations and that these businesses would be forced to discontinue offering tobacco products to American consumers.

Only Congress should have the authority to ban the sale, distribution, advertising, promotion, possession and use of legal tobacco products which would pre-empt federal agencies, states, counties or cities from ushering in a new era of prohibition.