Congress Hooked on Tobacco Lobby Cash, Group Charges
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WASHINGTON — Tobacco interests have spent more than $7 million since 1987 targeting key lawmakers to defeat attempts to ban smoking in public places and raise tobacco taxes, a consumer group said.
“Congress won’t raise the tobacco tax or clean up our indoor air as long as it remains hooked on ‘Camel Cash,’ which may be just as hazardous to our health as cigarettes,” said Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in a statement Saturday.
Twenty-five members of the House leadership, the Ways and Means Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee were among 44 House members receiving more than $25,000 each from tobacco PACs from January, 1987, to July 31, 1994, said the group.
Ways and Means Committee members who voted against a $1.25-per-pack hike in the cigarette tax received an average of $18,842.
Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) was the biggest single recipient of tobacco PAC contributions, $96,040 since 1987, the group said.
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