Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking minority member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has urged the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigars and pipe tobacco, claiming manufacturers are using those lower-taxed products to avoid paying the higher tax rates of cigarettes and little cigars. (Read his letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg here.)
 
Commenting on  Waxman's  letter to Commissioner Hamburg, the Tobacco Team of the law firm Troutman Sanders said September 16 that Waxman wants the FDA to deem as "misbranded" products that are "mislabeled as pipe tobacco or large cigars" -- even if the products satisfy appropriate Internal Revenue Code definitions. The attorneys questioned the congressman's assertion that cigars and pipe tobacco are being used to evade the Tobacco Control Act's ban on flavored cigarettes, since that law's proscription on flavors applies only to cigarettes.