call: quorum call:

mrs. feinstein: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. feinstein: i ask unanimous consent the call of

the quorum be dispensed. .the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. feinstein: i ask to speak in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much. madam president, i came to the floor to offer a few comments on the family smoking prevention and tobacco control act. the bill that we will be shortly voting to grant cloture on, i hope. i want to begin by, really, paying tribute and thanking senator kennedy. i've had occasion to discuss this subject with him more than once and no one has been more dedicated, worked harder or longer to see this day on the floor than senator ted kennedy and i wt to thank him for it. i hope once this bill gains cloture we will pass it swiftly and it will become the law of the land. and it will, in fact, save lives. i'd like to make three main points. the first is, the tobacco is the

leading preventable cause of death in this country. the second is the huge financial cost to tobacco. and, finally, the relationship between tobacco and cancer. we know that tobacco harms the health of americans. those who use cigarettes and those who are exposed to second-hand smoke. but i think what most people don't know is that every year 400,000 americans die from tobacco use. that makes tobacco the leading preventable cause of death in the united states. killing more people each year than hiv-aids, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle accidents, suicides, and murders -- combined. that's why it is the leading preventable cause of death. in california, every year,

36,600 adults die from their smoking. in michigan, the number is 14,500. in new york, 25,400. in wyoming, a very small state, 700 people die every year. so every state in this country loses people prematurely to death from smoking. we know the high cost, human cost now, of tobacco use, but i think people also don't realize my second point. that is, the tremendous financial cost. smoking costs our health care system $96 billion every year. states pay $13.3 billion every year in medicaid expenses. and the federal government spends $17.6 billion. medicare pays $27.6 billion.

and the v.a. and other federal programs spend an additional $9.6 billion. the rest of this cost is about $28 billion, and is borne by private payers. so the financial cost is $96 billion a year. the senate is about to embark on the enormous task of expanding health care coverage and access for the 47 million americans without insurance. now, imagine instead of spending $96 billion every year to treat tobacco-related illnesses we could use this money to improve our health care system. it could fund a significant portion of health reform. one, we could nearly triple the budget of the national institutes of health, a very good thing. two, only two months of

tobacco-related health spending could provide a year of health insurance for every uninsured child in america. and, three, let me put it another way: we could provide health insurance to every uninsured child in america and still have $80 billion left over. that's the inordinate, inexplicable cost of tobacco products in this country. instead, we continue to spend $96 billion every year on preventable illness caused by tobacco. now, passing this bill will not immediately end smockin end smot helping americans to live healthier lives is a critical component of any long-term reform of our health care system and i believe we should view this bill as a sound critical and important first step on the road to broader reform.

now, tobacco and cancer. and my life has been surrounded by cap certificate so i'm very sensitive on this point. without a doubt, cancer is one of the most expensive tobacco-related illnesses. cigarette smocking alone accounts for approximately 30% of cancer deaths annually. it is the leading cause of lung cancer and lung cancer is the number one killer of cancer in this country. so since coming to the senate, i've tried to be committed to finding cures and treatments that will end death and suffering from cancer. my goal is in my lifetime. and as i tell people i'm not that young anymore so i want to see it come fast and soon. i've had the opportunity to talk with counselleswith countless en

oncology, biomedical research, medicine, about how to meet this bill and they all say one thing: go after tobacco. we will not end cancer until we end tobacco use. and, madam president, this bill takes a major te major step in t direction. in 2007 the president's cancer panel called on congress to authorize the f.d.a. to strictly regulate tobacco products and product marketing. this same report called the tobacco industry -- and i quote -- "a vector of disease and death that can no more be ignored in seeking solutions to the tobacco problem than mosquitoes can be ignored in seeking to ke to eradicate mala" that is a really good quote.

most associate tobacco use with lung cancer but according to the national cancer institute, 90% of lung cancer deaths among men can be attributed to smoking -- 90% and 80% of the same deaths attributed to women are from smoking, as well. but there are a variety of other cancers caused by tobacco products. cancer of the mouth, of the nasal cavities, of the throat, of the esophagus and that is increasing for some strange reason and i suspect this has to do with it, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix, and even acute myeloid leukemia. there is so much we don't know about cancer: how it is caused,

how it progresses and how to treat it but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that many types are part at least in part by tobacco use. so i firmly believe that the passage of this bill will lead to a reduction in cancer, and most importantly, to cancer deaths. and it will give the f.d.a. the ability to make the cigarettes currently available less toxic and less cars know gentlemen nick and less add -- less carcinogenic and less addicting. for example, a study by david burns and christie anderson, both of the university of california, san diego school of medicine, suggest that cigarettes smoked today may double the risk of lung cancer compared to cigarettes smoked by americans 40 years ago. now that's amazing. remember all the unfiltered cigarettes of yesteryear?

so you would think those cigarettes would be stronger, right? no, they're saying. they attribute this to a change in the chemicals which have been added in recent years to cigarettes. the researchers compared cigarettes in the united states with cigarettes in australia, and here's what they found. that cigarettes smoked in australia have a much lower level of a compound known as tobacco specific nitrosone ph*e s. it causes a type of lung cancer called adeno carcinoma. rates of this lung cancer are much lower in australia leading researchers to conclude that the content of cigarettes are exposing american smokers to a higher risk. and so this suggests that lung cancer rates could be reduced by

regulatory control of additives to tobacco products. that's what this bill will do. it will give the federal drug administration the ability to make the cigarettes smoked in this country less dangerous, less addictive. they can ratchet down chemical components and addictive qualities that are added to tobacco to increase the addiction. under this bill, the f.d.a. can reduce carcinogens. some americans may still smoke, but the products they will smoke will be less likely to give them lung cancer. i think that's a good thing, and i hope you would agree with me. it's time to close the decades-long loophole that has allowed tobacco to become the one product that is sold and

advertised without any government oversight. without any government oversight. think about that. food is regulated. consumer products are regulated. medicine and medical devices are regulated. products designed to save lives are regulated. yet, tobacco companies sell products that when used as directed, one, addict people, two, make them sick, and three in some cases kill them. so if there's one industry that deserves the strictest scrutiny of the federal government, it is in fact tobacco. so i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. and i know it's difficult, but i have participated in something

that the american cancer society started called sea change. and this is where the cancer society has brought together some 65 groups, advocates, individuals, providers, government officials, to really deal with cancer and what causes cancer. and, madam chair, the one constant through all the discussions, the one thing that the physicians and the scientific community were the strongest on is that tobacco causes cancer. and that's just an inescapable fact. this bill deals with it. it provides regulation. it allows for the ratcheting down of addicting components. it allows for the control of chemicals that go into tobacco products. and it will in fact save lives. i thank you. i yield the floor.

madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

[captioning suspended]