To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to exempt the premium cigar industry from certain regulations.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2111 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2111

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to exempt the premium 
                cigar industry from certain regulations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 14, 2025

 Mr. Donalds (for himself, Mr. Langworthy, Ms. Titus, and Mr. Panetta) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to exempt the premium 
                cigar industry from certain regulations.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Premium cigars comprise only 1 percent of all cigars 
        sold in the United States.
            (2) Most manufacturers of premium cigars are family-owned 
        small businesses.
            (3) Premium cigars are typically sold in age-controlled 
        retail establishments, such as tobacco specialty shops or cigar 
        bars.
            (4) At the request of the Food and Drug Administration and 
        the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies of 
        Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (in this section referred 
        to as the ``NASEM'') convened an expert committee to examine 4 
        premium cigar topics: product characteristics, patterns of use, 
        marketing and perceptions, and health effects.
            (5) The NASEM expert committee produced a resulting report, 
        published in 2022 and titled ``Premium Cigars: Patterns of Use, 
        Marketing, and Health Effects'', which among other things, 
        identified numerous facts regarding premium cigar use.
            (6) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigars 
        are only used by about 1 percent of the United States adult 
        population.
            (7) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigar use 
        is less common among youth than among other users and only 0.6 
        percent of those who reported smoking a premium cigar were 
        under 18 years of age.
            (8) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigar use 
        is less common among women, non-Hispanic Black persons, and 
        persons with less than a high school education than other 
        users.
            (9) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigar 
        users are less likely to smoke cigarettes or other cigar types 
        concurrently than other cigar type users.
            (10) The NASEM expert committee found that the frequency 
        and intensity of smoking is lower for premium cigars compared 
        to other types of cigars and cigarettes.
            (11) The NASEM expert committee found that as compared to 
        users of other types of cigars, premium cigar users are more 
        likely to be never or former cigarette smokers.
            (12) The NASEM expert committee found that there is 
        strongly suggestive evidence that the health consequences of 
        premium cigar smoking overall are likely to be less than those 
        of smoking other types of cigars because the majority of 
        premium cigar smokers are nondaily or occasional users and 
        because they are unlikely to inhale the smoke.
            (13) The NASEM expert committee found that premium cigars 
        are used virtually exclusively by adults, premium cigar use is 
        extremely limited, and premium cigar use poses less physical 
        risk than the use of other tobacco products.
            (14) The definition of premium cigar used by the NASEM 
        expert committee is broader and would encompass a larger class 
        of cigars than the definition adopted by Judge Amit P. Mehta, 
        of the United States District Court for the District of 
        Columbia, in a recent decision striking the latest attempt by 
        the Food and Drug Administration to regulate premium cigars.
            (15) The narrower definition adopted by Judge Mehta is the 
        definition that would apply if this bill were enacted.
            (16) The District Court concluded that the few health risks 
        posed by premium cigars can be regulated at the State level.

SEC. 2. EXEMPTION OF PREMIUM CIGARS FROM CERTAIN TOBACCO REGULATION IN 
              FEDERAL FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT.

    Section 201(rr) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 
U.S.C. 321(rr)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(6)(A) The term `tobacco product' does not mean a premium cigar.
    ``(B) In clause (A), the term `premium cigar' means a cigar that--
            ``(i) is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf;
            ``(ii) contains a 100 percent leaf tobacco binder;
            ``(iii) contains at least 50 percent (of the filler by 
        weight) long filler tobacco (whole tobacco leaves that run the 
        length of the cigar);
            ``(iv) is handmade or hand rolled, meaning no machinery was 
        used apart from simple tools, such as scissors to cut the 
        tobacco prior to rolling;
            ``(v) has no filter, nontobacco tip, or nontobacco 
        mouthpiece;
            ``(vi) does not have a characterizing flavor other than 
        tobacco;
            ``(vii) contains only tobacco, water, and vegetable gum 
        with no other ingredients or additives; and
            ``(viii) weighs more than 6 pounds per 1,000 units.''.
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