Quote:
Originally Posted by The Dakotan
The sky isn't falling. This has to pass congress and be signed by the president. This is currently an amendment on the 2017 Ag Appropriation Bill which is in it's very beginning stages. Most of the time one of two things happens: 1) the Ag Bill (Farm Bill) doesn't pass and they pass a continuing resolution to use last years bill. This happened for ten years in the 90s and early 2000s. 2) Amendments like this always get revised significantly before their voted on.
It seems like the February 2007 date is arbitrary. It's not. E-cigs didn't exist before this date, therefore this is all about e-cigs and some genius wanted to add cigars. The cigars portion will get taken out before it gets to the floor for a vote.
Finally, there is a very important clause in all of this that says premium cigars may be exempt.
This won't change anything other than create panic. This is an amendment on a bill proposed by two congressmen and has passed a sub-committee (which they all do). That's all it is at this point. Even if the bill passes the house with this amendment, then they begin negotiating a final Farm Bill with the Senate. The cigar portion won't get very far.
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Unfortunately, it does not have to pass congress. The FDA was given this power by the Tobacco Control Act. This has been approved by the White House. There could be a Congressional review and they could pass a resolution stating the FDA has gone outside the intent Congress originally granted them via the Tobacco Control Act. But even if that happened, the White House will most certainly veto it which means Congress would have to get 2/3rds vote in both the Senate and the House to override the veto.
However, the proposed FY 2017 Appropriations bill does exempt premium cigars and/or changes the date from Feb 2007 to Aug 2016 which will overturn this decision but that does have to go through the process you mentioned. Even if it does pass it will happen after the Aug 2016 deadline so some of this will go into effect.