FDA Nominee Supports Agency Tobacco Regulation Role

The nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Margaret Hamburg, said she supports efforts to empower the agency to regulate tobacco products, Dow Jones Newswires reported May 11.

Hamburg told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that she felt that the FDA is the appropriate agency to regulate tobacco. “If done successfully, we can reduce smoking and we can make cigarettes less harmful,” she said.

Hamburg, who is known for her work as health commissioner in the New York City health department in the 1990s, said she would be “very comfortable moving forward” with plans outlined in a House bill that would give the FDA power to regulate tobacco products, as long as the agency is provided with additional staff and funding.

The legislation, which has passed the House, now moves to the Senate, where some lawmakers from tobacco-producing states oppose the bill.