There is a new Congress, and a new bill to exempt premium cigars from regulation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Rep. Bill Posey, R-Florida, has introduced H.R. 662, the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2015. The text is identical to H.R. 792, another bill sponsored by Posey. The aim is to remove “traditional large and premium cigars” from regularly control by FDA. It defines “traditional large and premium cigars” as “means any roll of tobacco that is wrapped in 100 percent leaf tobacco, bunched with 100 percent tobacco filler, contains no filter, tip or non-tobacco mouthpiece, weighs at least 6 pounds per 1,000 count.” In addition it must either have a 100 percent tobacco leaf binder rolled by hand or placed onto a machine, or a homogenized tobacco leaf binder that is laid by hand onto a machine if the cigar is rolled in the U.S. Posey was the sponsor of similar proposed legislation in the 112th Congress (H.R. 1639). That bill finished with 220 cosponsors, while H.R. 792 finished with 167 by the time the 113th Congress met for the final time. According to Kip Talley, senior director of federal legislative affairs ...
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