March 01, 2020

Weekly Wrap Up

Week 9 (February 28)

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt our lives,  the House moved forward with a strong, strategic funding package to protect the American people and fully address the seriousness of the public health crisis. The American people deserve a coordinated, fully-funded, whole-of-government response to keep them safe.

This week on the House floor, the House passed the historic bipartisan Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act—which explicitly designates lynching as a hate crime under federal law. Congress also passed strong legislation to combat the growing epidemic of youth tobacco and e-cigarette use in America. The bill blocks the manufacture and sale of all flavored tobacco products, which are designed to appeal to children.

This Week’s Votes

This week, House Democrats passed: 

  • H.R. 35 – Emmett Till Antilynching Act – Designates lynching as a hate crime. 

    • Specifies that an offense involving lynching is a hate crime.

    • Subjects perpetrators to criminal penalties: a prison term, a fine, or both. 

  • H.R. 2339 – Protecting American Lungs and Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act – Prevents tobacco companies from enticing a new generation of young people into a lifetime of nicotine addiction and preventable death.

    • Prohibits the manufacture and sale of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol and all cigar flavors, and removes all flavored e-cigarettes from the market within 30 days.

    • Extends marketing and advertising restrictions that currently apply to cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to other tobacco products as well, including e-cigarettes.

    • Directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prohibit non-face-to-face sales of most tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

    • Requires FDA to finalize rulemaking to implement graphic health warning for cigarette packages.

    • Extends FDA user fees to all classes of tobacco products, including newly deemed products such as e-cigarettes, and increases the total amount of fees collected.

    • Makes it explicitly unlawful to market, advertise, or promote any e-cigarette product to individuals under the age of 21 or to market, advertise, promote, or endorse any e-cigarette product, such as on social media, without clearly disclosing that the communication is an advertisement.

    • Requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue an annual report to Congress on the domestic sales, advertising, and promotional activities of tobacco product manufacturers.

    • Provides funding for community health worker grants to educate and provide guidance to medically underserved communities regarding evidence-based strategies for tobacco, e-cigarette and nicotine addiction cessation and prevention, including cessation of menthol flavored tobacco products.

    • Directs the CDC to establish a grant program for state, local, tribal, or territorial health departments to support the development of improved evidence-based strategies for smoking cessation in medically underserved communities.

    • Provides funding for comprehensive tobacco cessation treatment in Community Health Centers, including counseling and tobacco cessation therapies. 

Catch Us In The News

What We’re Reading

Looking Ahead

Next week, Congress is back in session. The Congressman will be participating in a House Judiciary Markup on important legislation, and a hearing investigating the United State’s treatment of refugees