Tobacco Snuffs Out SCHIP Veto Override

Email from IPCPR Legislative Director Chris McCalla:

Veto Override Vote Fails

Finally, this critical vote failed to pass the House of Representatives in a floor vote today. The final vote was 273-156, short of the two-thirds majority necessary.

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your perseverance, tenacity, vigilance, and persistence in contacting your U.S. congressmen and congresswomen, and your senators through phone calls, emails, faxes, and personal visits to their district and Capital Hill offices. Without your support and direct action we simply would not have made the noise we did in Congress, gaining the attention of influential members that now understand our niche community-industry cannot absorb a massive tax increase and continue to exist.

This is only the first round in what will most likely be a continuing battle for the next several months. As SCHIP expansion and extension of the current program will be sought by congressional democrats. We have already begun communicating and working with congressional leaders and their states, taking the position that if a tax increase in cigars must exist, that a realistic, manageable increase must be a part of the overall proposal.

A special thank you goes out to the manufacturers within our industry for their efforts throughout the United States and Latin America in mobilizing support against this tax increase. Through their coordinated efforts between the Latin American governments, and their counterparts in the United States, they illustrated and successfully conveyed the ramifications of this tax increase on the Latin American citizens and artisans who rely on the handmade cigar industry for a viable, living income. Key legislators now understand it is more than just a pleasure for consumers, but a way of life for those artisans who produced handmade cigars. Because of the handmade cigar industry, many of these citizens would not have reasonable access to medical and dental care, education, and other social services provided by manufacturers based in these small countries.

Thank you again for your efforts and direct action, for if we are to succeed, we must all hang together, or we will hang separately.

Chris McCalla

Legislative Director

I’m sure this is not the end of it but at least we are safe for now.