BY NEIL H. SIMON

Media General News Service

WASHINGTON — Under a bill passed today by the U.S. House of Representatives, cigarettes would be subject to government regulation for the first time.

The bill passed with a veto-proof 326-102 vote but now faces an uphill climb in the Senate, where a similar bill has been stalled since last August. Senate Democratic leaders have not decided whether to receive a vote in the waning weeks of a congressional session already overshadowed by the November elections.

Dubbed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the bill would ban most flavored cigarettes, except for menthol, a provision aimed at preventing teenagers from smoking.

The legislation, which has divided the tobacco industry, would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to curtail marketing further; control nicotine levels; and enlarge government warning labels on all tobacco products. Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, said the bill (HR 1108) would encourage work to make tobacco products — blamed for killing about 400,000 Americans a year — less harmful.

"The net result to all of us will be to increase the health outlook for consumers of tobacco," said Cantor, the top House recipient of tobacco-industry campaign contributions.

He said the bill also would protect the 5,600 Richmond-area jobs supplied by Philip Morris USA.

Three of Virginia’s 11 members of Congress voted against the bill: Reps. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-5th, and Robert W. Goodlatte, R-6th.

The Bush administration, congressional Republicans and several tobacco-industry lobbyists said an overburdened, underfunded FDA is the wrong agency to oversee tobacco.

Both presidential candidates are co-sponsors of the Senate version of the bill.

Philip Morris USA, the nation’s leading cigarette manufacturer, is the only cigarette maker to support the FDA regulation bill publicly. Some other manufacturers have argued that by limiting marketing, it would protect Philip Morris’ position as market leader.

Contact Neil H. Simon at

Media General reporter Richard Craver contributed to this report