Tobacco Export Effort Defeated (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Lexington Herald Leader
22 October 1998
                 Catchall budget bill leaves out export aid
                 for tobacco 

                 By Gail Gibson 
                 HERALD-LEADER WASHINGTON BUREAU 

                 WASHINGTON -- For Kentucky burley farmers, the 4,000-page, $500
                 billion catchall spending bill President Clinton signed
yesterday was notable
                 for what it didn't include. 

                 Raw leaf tobacco still isn't eligible for special export
assistance available to
                 some other farm commodities, despite an 11th-hour push by a
North
                 Carolina senator. 

                 During last week's negotiations on the massive spending
bill, farm leaders in
                 Kentucky were optimistic that the final version would
include language
                 helping open foreign markets to U.S. tobacco. 

                 But some health advocates criticized the change, saying it
would cost the
                 federal government as much as $10 million to essentially
promote tobacco
                 overseas. 

                 In the end, the leaf language pushed by U.S. Sen. Lauch
Faircloth, R-N.C.,
                 was dropped. 

                 Tim Cansler, national affairs director for the Kentucky
Farm Bureau
                 Federation, said the outcome raises questions about how
sincere the public
                 health community was in its pledge earlier this year to
support tobacco
                 farmers. 

                 "We were politically thwarted by a few members of Congress
who I think
                 once again are part of the public health community's amen
corner in
                 Congress," Cansler said. 

                 "I think this sends a strong message that people who say
they are our
                 friends, clearly and unequivocally are not." 

                 Other farm leaders said they want to see the export
promotion program
                 cover tobacco. But they say the issue isn't about efforts
to build coalitions
                 between health advocates and farmers. 

                 "We think we've done great things together, and in fact
give some of the
                 public health groups credit for our still having a
(price-support) program,"
                 said Danny McKinney, executive director of the Burley
Tobacco Growers
                 Cooperative Association in Lexington. 

                 Scott Ballin, a longtime anti-smoking activist who spent
the last year
                 working closely with farm groups, said health advocates
continue to be
                 sympathetic to farmer concerns. 

                 Health groups generally supported a $28 billion aid package
for tobacco
                 growers that was part of comprehensive tobacco legislation
that died in the
                 Senate this year. But Ballin said anti-smoking advocates
don't want federal
                 dollars used to promote tobacco sales, and they don't want
tobacco
                 legislation implemented piecemeal. 

                 "There are limits," Ballin said. "We didn't get anything on
the public health
                 side this year."