William Novelli and Matthew Myers

About the author: William Novelli is president and Matthew Myers is vice president and general counsel of the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C.

In June 1998, a congressional bill that would have enacted a comprehensive national tobacco control policy failed in the U.S. Senate. This bill would have required tobacco industry funding of antismoking campaigns, restrictions on the advertising and marketing of tobacco products, the granting of authority over tobacco products to the Food and Drug Administration, increased cigarette prices, and promises from the tobacco industry to reduce youth smoking. Moreover, the tobacco industry agreed to pay billions of dollars to states that had sued the industry in the 1990s to recover the health care costs of treating smoking-related illnesses; in...