88 



randa on the possible details and implications of potential FDA 

 regulation of tobacco products. 



I have a number of those types of questions and I am going to 

 read them into the record and ask you and the FDA to respond. 

 You will let me know whether 2 weeks is too short a period of 

 time? 



Mr. Kessler. Mr. Bilirakis, I would be very happy to work with 

 the chairman so that the chairman can or the chairman's designee 

 can verify that I have quoted from any document accurately and 

 completely. 



Mr. Bilirakis. Dr. Kessler, frankly, over the years, you have tes- 

 tified before this committee and I have been very impressed with 

 you. And now you say you are going to work with the chairman. 

 Well, that's fine. We all like to work with the chairman, believe it 

 or not. 



But if you have any memoranda prepared by your investigators 

 on their interviews or any memoranda on the possible details and 

 implications of potential FDA regulation of tobacco products, then 

 I am asking that you furnish them to the committee for the record 

 so we can all look at them, not just the chairman, but all of us. 



Mr. Kessler. Congressman I need, respectfullv, and I appreciate 

 your comments, but I need to respectfully make it clear to this 

 committee that if we were in a situation where I could walk in and 

 get information — one second, please. 



If I can get information freely and fully and have full cooperation 

 and I don't have to be reading about Brazilian patents, if I can get 

 information on all documents walking in through the front door of 

 any major American tobacco company, then I would have no prob- 

 lem making available our records to you. We have had to rely, un- 

 fortunately, on sources and confidential information. 



Mr. Chairman, I am willing to allow the Chair to verify the au- 

 thenticity of anything I have said, but I am not willing — I am not 

 willing to make available any document or any memo or any infor- 

 mation that could possibly jeopardize a confidential source. 



Mr. Bilirakis. I believe I am talking about memoranda within 

 your agency as one staff member to another or memoranda to you 

 regarding this entire issue. Dr. Kessler. I mean is that unreason- 

 able? I don't understand. 



Mr. Kessler. We deal with document requests all the time. I 

 just need to underscore when one has information from confidential 

 sources, again, those confidential sources, as you could understand, 

 need to be assured of their confidentiality; as well as, I follow the 

 same general rule 



Mr. Bilirakis. So there is information that you have received 

 from confidential sources that you have not made charts of and 

 that you have not shared with this committee? 



I don't understand, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Waxman. Let me pose it this way: It is not uncommon for 

 us to get documents from the Executive Branch, but if there is any 

 confidential information on it, to have that information deleted. 

 But you want memorandum within the agency, and I think it is ap- 

 propriate for us to get memorandum, so long as we don't infringe 

 on any confidentiality. 



Is that acceptable to you, Dr. Kessler? 



