Williamson be printed in the record at the conclusion of my open- 

 ing statement. 



Mr. Miles had the time to hold a press conference and announce 

 a lawsuit yesterday, but he wouldn't find the time to come before 

 the Congress of the United States and talk about this very issue. 



The tobacco industry denies the adverse health effects of smok- 

 ing. They deny that advertising promotes smoking. They deny that 

 their cartoon characters are appealing to children. They deny that 

 nicotine is addictive. Today their representatives will deny that to- 

 bacco companies enhance or fortify tobacco with nicotine. They will 

 ask the Congress to take them at their word. 



I don't think so. 



The evidence that FDA will present today makes three critical 

 points: One, nicotine is a powerfully addicting substance; two, nico- 

 tine is the reason people smoke; and three, tobacco companies have 

 the capability of removing all nicotine from cigarettes. 



What the American people want to ask the cigarette industry is 

 this: "If nicotine is addicting, why won't you remove it from ciga- 

 rettes?" 



We have had legislation in the Congress for a number of years 

 introduced by my colleague Mike Synar and others to ask the FDA 

 to have jurisdiction to regulate tobacco. They are now unregulated 

 by the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safe- 

 ty Commission or any other Federal regulatory agency. 



Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why we should leave this prod- 

 uct, which does so much harm to the American people, completely 

 unregulated. 



I want to commend Congressman Synar for his leadership in 

 raising this issue year after year. Now it is time for us to take a 

 hard look at his proposal. 



[The letters referred to follow:] 



