119-hr2111

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2111 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

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119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 2111

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to exempt the premium 
 cigar industry from certain regulations.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 March 14, 2025

 Mr. Donalds (for himself, Mr. Langworthy, Ms. Titus, and Mr. Panetta) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
 Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to exempt the premium 
 cigar industry from certain regulations.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

 The Congress finds the following:

    (1) Premium cigars comprise only 1 percent of all cigars 
 sold in the United States.

    (2) Most manufacturers of premium cigars are family-owned 
 small businesses.

    (3) Premium cigars are typically sold in age-controlled 
 retail establishments, such as tobacco specialty shops or cigar 
 bars.

    (4) At the request of the Food and Drug Administration and 
 the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies of 
 Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (in this section referred 
 to as the ``NASEM'') convened an expert committee to examine 4 
 premium cigar topics: product characteristics, patterns of use, 
 marketing and perceptions, and health effects.

    (5) The NASEM expert committee produced a resulting report, 
 published in 2022 and titled ``Premium Cigars: Patterns of Use, 
 Marketing, and Health Effects'', which among other things, 
 identified numerous facts regarding premium cigar use.

    (6) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigars 
 are only used by about 1 percent of the United States adult 
 population.

    (7) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigar use 
 is less common among youth than among other users and only 0.6 
 percent of those who reported smoking a premium cigar were 
 under 18 years of age.

    (8) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigar use 
 is less common among women, non-Hispanic Black persons, and 
 persons with less than a high school education than other 
 users.

    (9) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigar 
 users are less likely to smoke cigarettes or other cigar types 
 concurrently than other cigar type users.

    (10) The NASEM expert committee found that the frequency 
 and intensity of smoking is lower for premium cigars compared 
 to other types of cigars and cigarettes.

    (11) The NASEM expert committee found that as compared to 
 users of other types of cigars, premium cigar users are more 
 likely to be never or former cigarette smokers.

    (12) The NASEM expert committee found that there is 
 strongly suggestive evidence that the health consequences of 
 premium cigar smoking overall are likely to be less than those 
 of smoking other types of cigars because the majority of 
 premium cigar smokers are nondaily or occasional users and 
 because they are unlikely to inhale the smoke.

    (13) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigars 
 are used virtually exclusively by adults, premium cigar use is 
 extremely limited, and premium cigar use poses less physical 
 risk than the use of other tobacco products.

    (14) The definition of premium cigar used by the NASEM 
 expert committee is broader and would encompass a larger class 
 of cigars than the definition adopted by Judge Amit P. Mehta, 
 of the United States District Court for the District of 
 Columbia, in a recent decision striking the latest attempt by 
 the Food and Drug Administration to regulate premium cigars.

    (15) The narrower definition adopted by Judge Mehta is the 
 definition that would apply if this bill were enacted.

    (16) The District Court concluded that the few health risks 
 posed by premium cigars can be regulated at the State level.

SEC. 2. EXEMPTION OF PREMIUM CIGARS FROM CERTAIN TOBACCO REGULATION IN 
 FEDERAL FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT.

 

Section 201

    (rr) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 
U.S.C. 321

    (rr) ) is amended by adding at the end the following:
 ``

    (6)
        (A) The term `tobacco product' does not mean a premium cigar.
 ``
        (B) In clause
        (A) , the term `premium cigar' means a cigar that--
 ``
            (i) is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf;
 ``
            (ii) contains a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder;
 ``
            (iii) contains at least 50 percent (of the filler by 
 weight) long filler tobacco (whole tobacco leaves that run the 
 length of the cigar);
 ``
            (iv) is handmade or hand rolled, meaning no machinery was 
 used apart from simple tools, such as scissors to cut the 
 tobacco prior to rolling;
 ``
            (v) has no filter, nontobacco tip, or nontobacco 
 mouthpiece;
 ``
            (vi) does not have a characterizing flavor other than 
 tobacco;
 ``
            (vii) contains only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum 
 with no other ingredients or additives; and
 ``
            (viii) weighs more than 6 pounds per 1,000 units.''.
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