Cigar smokers, your attention now turns to OMB. Moments ago, the House of Representatives unveiled the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (PDF), better known as the appropriations or omnibus bill. Included was over $1.1 trillion of funding, not included was any language that would help the premium cigar industry avoid regulation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Last week, it became known that language had been included in a working version of the bill that would have prevented FDA from regulation premium cigars. At the time it was understood that the exemption was being considered in a working version of the bill, but the closed door nature of the how the massive omnibus appropriations bill was being debated meant there was no way of knowing whether the language would make the final version. It did not. This particular exemption for premium cigars would have been a massive win for the industry because unlike other potential exemptions and grandfather clauses, the definition for “premium cigar” was much broader than what is being considered by FDA. In short, cigars would have been exempted regardless of flavoring, price and/or whether they were entirely long filler. It also would have likely been friendly towards the few U.S.-based cigar rolling operations still around, something not ...
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