House lawmakers give e-cigs a boost

The House Appropriations Committee voted 31-19 to include an amendment to an agriculture appropriations bill during a hearing Monday making several changes to the FDA’s proposed regulations for e-cigarettes. Chief among them is a radical shift in the grandfather date under the proposed regulations.

The FDA had called for a grandfathering date of Feb. 15, 2007. The grandfather date will determine which products need to be cleared by the federal government.

If a product was made after that date, it has to go through the agency’s tobacco products approval process, even if it is already on the market.

The e-cigarette industry has vociferously fought the grandfather date, charging that it is arbitrary and that many e-cigarette products were not on the market in 2007.

So the House panel voted to move the grandfather date up to when the regulations are finalized.

If the date isn’t changed, a deluge of products would go through the regular approval pathway for tobacco products, instead of a less arduous pathway, said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., one of the amendment’s sponsors.

He said the tobacco approval pathway has had one applicant and the process cost the company millions.

Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said the current regulations could inundate the agency with requests for review of e-cigarettes.

“It will create a crippling logjam diverting FDA resources and attention from its core mission,” he said.

But Democrats on the panel charged Republicans with interfering with the FDA’s authority and that the changes would hurt consumers because of fewer safety reviews.

“Many of these products are manufactured in China, which doesn’t have our standards of consumer protection,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. She is also chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

The committee is largely expected to pass the full appropriations bill and send it to the House floor.