Tag: Dick Durbin

Durbin Blames Police for Illegal Flavored Vape Surge

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Illinois Senator Dick Durbin strongly condemned top health and law enforcement officials for their inadequate efforts in combating the surge of illegal disposable e-cigarettes among young people in the U.S.
Industry analysts estimate disposable vapes make up 30 percent to 40 percent of the roughly $7 billion vaping market. The two best-selling disposables—Breeze and Elf Bar—generated more than $500 million in sales last year, according to Nielsen retail sales data analyzed by Goldman Sachs, according to media reports.
Both brands have been sanctioned by FDA regulators but remain widely available, in some cases with new names, logos, and flavors. More than half of the 2.8 million U.S. teens who vaped last year said they used Elf Bar.
Overall, teen vaping has fallen 60 percent since its all-time high in 2019, following the COVID-19 pandemic and new age restrictions and flavor bans on e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.
“Nearly all e-cigarettes are sold in violation of federal law, yet 2 million kids report vaping,” Durbin tweeted.
Using its own authorities, the FDA has sent hundreds of warning letters to vape shops and e-cigarette manufacturers in recent years. But the letters have done little to dissuade companies from flouting FDA rules and introducing new vapes.
September 3, 2024
US Senate Hearing on Vaping ‘Epidemic’ Today
Credit: Dick Durbin
The US Senate Judiciary Committee plans to conduct hearings today at 10 am on “Combatting the Youth Vaping Epidemic by Enhancing Enforcement Against Illegal E‑Cigarettes.” The hearing will be chaired by Senator Dick Durbin, a longtime opponent of vaping products.
The hearing will take place just two days after the Justice Department and Food and Drug Administration announced they have created a multi-agency coalition of law enforcement organizations, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the US Marshals Service, the Federal Trade Commission, and the US Postal Service, to pursue the underground trade in vaping materials.
The federal task force will focus on several topics, including investigating and prosecuting new criminal, civil, seizure and forfeiture actions under the PACT Act; the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), as amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA); and other authorities.
“The U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Division stands ready to work with our Task Force partners in the seizure of unauthorized e-cigarettes from domestic distributors seeking to sell them unlawfully,” said Ronald Davis, director of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Both the legislative and executive branches are in a hurry to solve the teen vaping epidemic before the public realizes that there isn’t one, according to media reports.
As Michelle Minton wrote for the Reason Foundation last December, “The youth vaping epidemic, declared by the Food and Drug Administration in 2018, appears now to have been more of a teenage fad—one possibly partially fueled by media attention on the issue. But, while the vaping fad may be subsiding, the hysteria surrounding it continues unabated.”
June 12, 2024
Senator Demands FDA Testify Before Congress

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After months of pressure from lawmakers to prevent the unauthorized sale of vaping devices, federal regulators may soon have to explain themselves before Congress.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, has long urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to follow through on a court-ordered review of premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) from e-cigarette manufacturers.
The U.S. Court for the District of Maryland mandated the survey, ruling in 2019 that the FDA had run afoul of federal law by allowing unauthorized vape sales. The review was supposed to have been completed in 2021, according to Court House News.
Durbin, in a January letter, accused the agency of “granting a free pass to scores of vaping products that are harming the health of children in our country.”
Now, Durbin is angling to haul FDA officials before Congress. He demanded in a letter Tuesday that Brian King, director of the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Durbin extended a similar invite to Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division. Federal law enforcement is tasked with assisting the FDA in bringing enforcement for violations of the Tobacco Control Act, which includes marketing authorizations for vape manufacturers.
Durbin met with Boynton and King in April during a private meeting to discuss the enforcement of unauthorized e-cigarettes. If the officials agree to testify publicly, the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in June.
A spokesperson for the FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would comply with the request.
May 8, 2024
Durbin Decries FDA Vape Failures From Senate Floor

Credit: Dick Durbin
U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin has again decried the Food and Drug Administration on its unacceptable failure to “protect children from the dangers of vaping” as the agency continues to miss and delay critical deadlines.
In a press release, Durbin stated that he has repeatedly criticized the FDA for its long-overdue review of premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) from e-cigarette manufacturers, which originally had a federal court deadline of September 9, 2021.
FDA has missed that court-ordered deadline by 28 months as unauthorized e-cigarettes flood the market.
During his speech, Durbin also called on the Biden Administration to swiftly implement a proposed public health rule to prohibit the production and retail sale of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.
“I know this President cares deeply about the toll of cancer. It has touched his family personally, as it has mine,” the Senator said. “If we want to make a difference in the health of Americans—and set a legacy for future generations—then the Administration must finalize this public health measure to end Big Tobacco’s predatory promotion of menthol cigarettes. Lives hang in the balance.”
The FDA stated in prior status reports for PMTAs that the agency would complete a review of 100 percent of the applications by the end of 2023. The agency is now estimating that completion of the reviews may be delayed as the FDA considers the D.C. Circuit’s opinion in Fontem US v. FDA, affirming in part and vacating and remanding in part marketing denial orders for certain vaping products.
January 12, 2024
FDA Says PMTA Reviews to Take Until End of Year

Credit: F Armstrong Photo
In a court filing this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration stated it will take until possibly December 31, 2023, before it completes a premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) review process for some of the most popular vapes on the market.
Upon being informed of the delay, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois began demanding the FDA act immediately in removing e-cigarettes and vaping products from store shelves saying the agency has ignored a court order requiring them to take action by September 2021.
“On Tuesday, in a stunning filing to the federal judge, the Food and Drug Administration disclosed that it will take another six-month delay in fulfilling the public health duty announced by the court years ago. That the Food and Drug Administration will not finish reviewing applications for the most popular e-cigarettes until the end of 2023, is another outrageous delay,” said Durbin. “How can this federal agency knowingly, willingly ignore this court order to protect America’s children?”
Durbin, who has repeatedly urged FDA to complete the premarket review of e-cigarettes, called on FDA to use its authority to swiftly remove any and all unreviewed vaping products from store shelves for the safety of American consumers.
“While the FDA has dithered, dallied and delayed, more than one million of America’s kids have started vaping,” Durbin stated this week calling on the agency to obey the court order. “Not next year. Not next month. Immediately. Today,” Durbin stated in a release.
January 28, 2023
AVM Asks for Ethics Investigation Into Dick Durbin

Dick Durbin and Center for Tobacco Products Director Brian King (Photo: The office of Senator Dick Durbin)
The American Vapor Manufacturers Association (AVM) has requested that the Senate Ethics Committee investigate Illinois Senator Dick Durbin for allegedly violating Senate rules by attempting to improperly influence U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientific decisions about vaping products, according to Vaping360.
On Oct. 14, the AVM delivered a letter to the chair and vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics that alleged Durbin pressured the FDA to ban all vaping products despite the agency’s premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) review process.
Citing Durbin’s track record (urging the FDA to ban vapor products via letters, Senate floor speeches, press releases and private meetings) the AVM says it believes Durbin attempted “to interfere with and influence the outcome of an ongoing executive branch agency review process in violation of Senate Ethics rules.”

“Senator Durbin’s arrogant bullying has now become a grave threat to public health.”
Amanda Wheeler, president, AVM
“Senator Durbin’s arrogant bullying has now become a grave threat to public health,” AVM President Amanda Wheeler said in a press release. “At a time when trust in public health authorities is already shaky, Durbin’s shameful campaign to hijack federal policy on this crucial health issue should come to an immediate end.”
The letter to the Senate committee marks the second time this year that the AVM has asked a government body to investigate corruption of the FDA PMTA review process.
According to Vaping360, the ethics committee is unlikely to seriously investigate Durbin or cite him for misconduct; Durbin is Senate Majority Whip, making him the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Democratic-led body.
October 17, 2022