With the 114th Congress now in session, the time has come to reintroduce legislation to exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation. Last week we reported on the introduction of House Bill (HR) 662 to the U.S. House of Representatives. The purpose of that bill is to introduce legislation to exempt premium cigars from regulations being proposed by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  Yesterday U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida has introduced the companion Bill, Senate Bill S. 441 to the U.S. Senate.  The bill has been co-sponsored by an additional ten sponsors.

S. 441 replaces  S. 772 introduced to the 113th Congress in 2013 which replaced S. 1461 which was introduced to the 112th Congress in 2011. 17 sponsors from the U.S. House of Representatives signed on to S. 772 while S. 1461 had 14 sponsors.  The new session of Congress requires a new bills to be put in place.  Last year, the FDA published its Deeming Document of proposed FDA regulations.

The process of recruiting co-sponsors for the bill will now begin through lobbying efforts.  S. 662 is already up to a total of 43 sponsors.

The following are the list of the 10 sponsors.

Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. [D-PA]
Sen. Cory Gardney [R-CO]
Sen. Dean Heller [R-NV]
Sen. Mazie Hirono [D-HI]
Sen. Joe Manchin III [D-WV]
Sen. Bill Nelson [R-FL]

Sen. Marco Rubio [R-FL]
Sen. Jon Tester [D-MT]
Sen. Pat Toomey [R-PA]
Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]