Burgess calls for oversight of FDA tobacco regulation

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) called for oversight of the FDA’s allocation of resources to regulate the tobacco industry and the agency’s ability to implement laws on Tuesday.

Burgess, the vice chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, prepared his comments for a hearing entitled, “Examining the Implementation of the Tobacco Control Act.”

“I continue to oppose FDA’s role in anything related to tobacco that doesn’t involve people quitting,” Burgess said. “The FDA should be the gateway for the American public to access lifesaving and improving products. Tobacco should not be in the same building. But as long as it is, we deserve an accounting of how $1.1 billion collected in user fees is being spent, as well as the plans for the over $500 million that remain un-obligated. To put this number in perspective, that is roughly five times the amount of user fees collected from medical device manufacturers.”

Tobacco results in the deaths of approximately 480,000 Americans each year. Premature deaths account for $156 billion in lost wages and $133 billion per year in direct healthcare costs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Burgess said he found it “outrageous and offensive” that representatives of the FDA would not testify before the subcommittee.