and despite this awful situation, despite the fact that has has cancer, he will tell you plainly, "i'm addicted." we need to enact this legislation to help people in new hampshire and across the country, people like keith, people like norma's son. tobacco tobacco products and marketing geared to kids need to end. we can't afford to let another generation of young people put themselves at risk by becoming addicted to tobacco products and suffering the lifelong consequences of their addiction, or even worse: dying. for decades tobacco companies have targeted women and girls. but in the last two years the industry has significantly stepped up their marketing efforts aimed at our daughters and granddaughters.

we have a picture of one of the ads that r.j. reynolds uses. it's their new version of camel cigarettes targeted to girls and women. it's camel no. 9. sort of a takeoff on some descriptions we've heard. this has she can, shiny black packaging and flowery ads and the advertising light and luscious. this advertisement has appeared in "kos mow poll tan," "in style," "lucky" and marie clair

magazines. women are now at increased risk for lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes, emphysema and other deadly diseases. these statistics are staggering, and it's important to remember that they represent mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, colleagues, and friends. 17-year-old kate steward of dover, new hampshire, has seen these camel no. 9 advertisements. she saw them in "glamour" magazine. she sees through the campaign. she says -- and i quote -- "tobacco companies advertise to pry to get me and my friends to smoke. they try to make young girls that i smoking is sexy, glamorous and cool. they know that if they get us to start smoking now, we will be addicted for years to come."

now, it's not just cigarettes that we're attempting to regulate in this legislation. the tobacco companies have also developed new products that are both smokeless and spitless. they're just as addictive as those products you smoke, however, and they're just as deadly. like cigarettes, they don't have any f.d.a. regulation, and the consequences are dire. i want to show a photo here of a young man named gruen von barons. he's an oral cancer survivor. he's had more than 40 surgeries to save his life, including one radical surgery, and you can see how it left him in this picture. it removed half his neck muscles and lymph nodes and half of his tongue. like too many teenagers, he first tried spit tobacco at age 13 to fit in.

by age 17 he was diagnosed with cancer. how can we let this happen. the tobacco is targeting our children, and it's our job to protect them. this legislation is vital to our children and to our nation's health. it will prevent the tobacco companies from marketing to children. it will require disclosure of the contents of tobacco products, authorize the f.d.a. to require the reduction and removal of harmful ingredients and force tobacco companies to scientifically prove any claims about reduced risk of products. the f.d.a. is the proper place to have this authority. it's responsible for protecting consumers from products that cause them harm. the f.d.a. even regulates pet food, yet it doesn't have the authority to provide oversight for tobacco, one of the most dangerous consumer products sold in the united states.

under this legislation, the f.d.a. will oversee tobacco products with the same objective and the same oversight with which it directs all of its activities to promote and protect public health. it has the necessary scientific expertise, regulatory experience, and public health mission to do the job. we can't wait any longer to make the necessary changes that will impact the lives of so many people we know and love. again, i want to thank senator kennedy for his outstanding leadership on this issue and join many of my colleagues in supporting this important legislation that will save lives in new hampshire and across the country. thank you, mr. president. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: