The administration has taken several steps to unravel federal antismoking initiatives and delivered significant policy wins to tobacco companies.

The details:

As part of its government downsizing efforts last year, the administration laid off Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) staff, and the Office has now been shut down for more than a year. OSH managed the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign and worked with states on smoking cessation measures.
OSH sent most of its $240 million budget to states each year, but shortly after laying off the staff, CDC notified states that their annual funding for tobacco control would not be coming. Many state tobacco control offices cut their own staff as a result.
While hundreds of other federal employees have been rehired, the OSH staff members have not been. Even after Congress restored OSH’s funding last summer, its employees have remained on paid leave as litigation challenging the firings plays out.
In recent weeks, under pressure from Congress, CDC has given states diminished funding to air ads from the Tips From Former Smokers campaign’s archive, but the federal government will not produce new ads or negotiate contracts for them to air nationwide.

Why it’s important:

CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers Campaign was highly effective in motivating people to quit smoking.
Since the ads went off the air, calls to quitlines have plummeted, along with enrollment in programs that offered counseling and nicotine gum/patches.
Smoking is a primary driver of chronic disease, which Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy claims to be focused on addressing.

The broader context: The cuts have come as tobacco companies have aggressively lobbied the administration for policy changes that would benefit them.