Clinton accused: Congress asked for action on tobacco

President Clinton urged Congress to raise cigarette prices by $1.50 per pack over 10 years and impose penalties on tobacco companies if they keep marketing cigarettes to young people. His call came as the chances of Congress approving a significant tobacco settlement appear to be lost.

"Let's pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that will change the way tobacco companies do business for ever," Mr Clinton said in his State of the Union speech to Congress.

White House officials said new tobacco legislation was expected to generate about $65bn in revenue over five years and would be included in Mr Clinton's budget request to Congress next month.

The President challenged Congress to get tough on what he called the gravest health threat facing American children - "an epidemic of teen smoking, spread by multi-million-dollar marketing campaigns".

"Let's do what it takes to bring teen smoking down," he said. "Let's raise the price of cigarettes by up to $1.50 a pack over the next 10 years, with penalties on tobacco companies if they continue marketing to kids. Let this Congress be remembered as the Congress that saved their lives."

A sweeping $368bn tobacco settlement proposal, negotiated last June by the big tobacco companies and the states suing them, is basically dead on Capitol Hill but several groups are still pushing for legislation of some kind.

But Republican leaders have said Mr Clinton has made anti-tobacco legislation harder by including tobacco revenue in his budget, before Congress had even acted on anti-smoking policies.

- Reuters