http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=8458852D-A0BF-42C8-9191-9F6C47FF0D01 Up in smoke?
By: Jeremy Herb
October 7, 2014 06:27 PM EDT
There’s a new battle brewing over smoking in the military.
Congress and the Defense Department are mulling over a potential ban on selling tobacco products — cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco — on military bases and ships in an effort to curb high smoking rates, but critics argue the move would be unfair to service members who already are making significant sacrifices.
The fight over smoking and the military, which will most likely unfold during the lame-duck congressional session, follows a similar debate playing out in the civilian world, after CVS announced it would stop selling tobacco products in its 7,600 U.S. stores.
The proposal to ban the sale of tobacco products on military bases and ships was first floated by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in March. Shortly after, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a Defense Department-wide review of the issue.
But even before the review is complete, the issue is facing opposition from Congress. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a Marine reservist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has inserted an amendment in the House-passed defense authorization bill that would block the department from banning tobacco sales at exchange stores.
“It’s not curbed for anybody else. Why pick out the folks who choose of their own accord to fight for their country and serve their country, and punish them?” Hunter said in an interview. “Leave us the hell alone — we’re out here fighting for your freedom, and you’re taking away ours.”
Hagel’s review is expected to be completed in November, according to defense officials — at the same time as the House and Senate will be reconciling their defense authorization bills. Hunter’s provision is not included in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense measure.
The looming fight could spark one of the biggest changes in years for tobacco and the military and has prompted both anti-smoking advocates and the tobacco industry to focus their lobbying efforts on the defense bills.
The lobbying arms of tobacco giants Altria Group and Reynolds American and anti-smoking groups Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association are all lobbying this year’s defense authorization and appropriations bills, according to disclosure records.
The sales ban has advocates on Capitol Hill. In particular, several Democratic senators say the military should end tobacco sales to try to lower troops’ smoking rates. And lawmakers have argued companies that sell tobacco in stores should do the same.
In a letter to the Navy secretary, four Democratic senators — including Senate Defense Appropriations Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee — said the smoking rate for service members is 10 percent higher than that of the general population and that a June 2009 Pentagon report estimated tobacco-related military health care and lost productivity cost roughly $1.9 billion annually.
“One in three members of the military today says they started after they enlisted. Why? Well, because we make it easy for them,” Durbin said at a June hearing.
Opponents on the Hill argue that smoking is legal.
Hunter said he’s ready to fight in conference committee for his amendment, which prohibits the military from restricting the sale of legal products already sold in military stores. His measure was overwhelmingly approved by the House Armed Services Committee, 53-9.
“It was the most bipartisan amendment that we passed that night,” Hunter said.
One House GOP aide said the Senate might have trouble cutting Hunter’s amendment from the final conference bill because it had such strong support within the House panel.
The issue also could divide military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon. Hagel hinted at a press conference earlier this year that he might back a ban on tobacco sales.
“I don’t know if there’s anybody in America who still thinks that tobacco’s good for you,” he said. “I think we owe it to our people. The costs — health care costs — are astounding, well over a billion dollars, just in the Department of Defense, on tobacco-related illness and health care.”
But Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey expressed concern about the restrictions at a June hearing on Capitol Hill.
“We lead an uncommon life by choice,” Dempsey said. “But all the things you’re talking about are legal and they are accessible and anything that makes anything less convenient and more expensive for our men and women in uniform, given everything we’re asking them to do, I’ve got concerns about.”
The Pentagon hasn’t hinted at the results of the pending review.
“The Defense Advisory Committee continues to study the issue of tobacco use in the military,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. James Brindle said in a statement. “The committee will present its findings, and a comprehensive menu of tobacco cessation and prevention options, to senior military and civilian leadership this fall.”
Anti-smoking groups, though, already are pushing for Hunter’s provision to be removed from the final defense authorization bill.
“It’s critical that the defense secretary not have his hands tied by anything that would prevent him from moving forward with a sensible set of policies to deal with the tobacco use by military personnel,” said Gregg Haifley, associate director of federal relations at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
Regardless of how this fight ends, there’s at least one tobacco policy change likely to be enacted: an end to a 5 percent discount for tobacco products at military exchanges. The Navy already has stopped such discounts at stores located on Navy and Marine bases.
Durbin included a provision to kill the tobacco discount in his committee’s defense appropriations bill, a move that has not sparked the same resistance as the larger ban, even among lawmakers who represent the heart of the tobacco industry.
“I don’t know why we still have a discount for tobacco for the military,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).
