Senate Action Alert
Save Lives, Not Tobacco
Senate Action Alert!!! June 9, 1998
Current Status:
The Senate has voted against tabling (killing) the Gregg-Leahy "No Special Protections" amendment and for the Durbin-DeWine amendment to make the youth smoking "look back" penalties company-specific. Now, the Senate Democrats are trying to force a vote to pass the national tobacco bill (S. 1415) by invoking cloture, a Senate procedure to end debate on the bill after 30 hours and force a vote. The Save Lives Coalition Coordinating Committee recommends supporting the effort to end debate on the tobacco bill and pass it out of the Senate. We need your help to make this happen.
Pushing for Cloture:
It takes 60 votes to approve a cloture petition in the Senate. Once cloture is invoked, the Senate may continue to debate and work on amendments, although the amendments must be germane. To get 60 votes, all of the Democrats and at least 15 Republican Senators must vote for cloture.
Last Thursday, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle filed a petition for cloture, and on Friday, Senator Conrad filed a second petition. The votes on the first of these petitions is currently set for 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, June 9. The second cloture vote will occur on Wednesday. It is likely that additional cloture petitions will be filed, and there will be at least one vote each day this week on ending debate and passing the bill. Because the clock is running out for Congressional action this year, and the House is unlikely to take up a bill until the Senate is finished, a vote against cloture is a vote to kill this bill.
Our best shot at passing good legislation and keeping bad amendments at bay is to move the bill out of the Senate ASAP. If the bill is delayed, Senators who want to kill the legislation will continue debating non-tobacco issues, like the marriage tax penalty (Sen. Gram., R-TX) and illegal drug policy (Sen. Coverdell, R-GA). The Senators who want the bill -- including those who voted with us against immunity and in favor of better look back provisions -- may feel that they need to compromise on those issues if the bill looks like it is going to die in the Senate. We must not let this happen.
We still have additional amendments pending, including the Lautenberg-Smith "No Local Preemption" amendment, an amendment to strengthen the advertising provisions and other amendments to improve the bill, but we can work on these and other tobacco-relevant amendments both before and after cloture.
And we can work to continue to improve the legislation in other ways when we get the measure taken up in the House.
Action Needed: Call Your Senators!!
We need to act while we have the momentum on our side, while the bill is getting stronger, not weaker. We have won our top two priority amendments, and we may get some others added. But it is time to move S. 1415 out of the Senate.
Messages:
1) Vote For Cloture! A vote against ending debate is a vote to kill the tobacco bill! It is time to move this bill out of the Senate and over to the House.
Because the Democratic leadership is supporting cloture, we mostly need Republican Senators who say they will vote to end debate and pass the bill. Calls to all Republican Senators are the most urgent!
It is likely that most, if not all, Republican Senators will vote against cloture on Tuesday. Although we would like Republicans to vote with us, we expect to lose that vote along party lines. Tell your Republican Senators to vote for national tobacco policy and for cloture beginning on the second and all subsequent cloture votes!
Call your Democratic Senators! Make sure they will vote for cloture, and ask them to keep pressing until the bill is passed!
2) Vote Against Amendments That Aren't About Tobacco! While there is bi-partisan support to pass strong tobacco legislation, there are some Republicans trying to talk the bill to death and kill it by adding on amendments that have nothing to do with tobacco policy! Tell your Senators to vote "NO" on amendments to S. 1415 that have nothing to do with tobacco.
Please report back what you learn about your Senators' positions to Cassandra Welch at American Lung Association (202) 785-3355, Jeannette Galanis at Public Citizen (202) 546-4996 or Bill Godshall at SmokeFree Pennsylvania (412) 421-0500.
Thank you for your continued help! We still have a long way to go in this campaign but remember: We are still winning!
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