223 



man certainly would be concerned about and want to know more 

 about it. 



Mr. Waxman. Mr. Sandefur, may I ask you on that very point if 

 there has been a Brown & Williamson employee who has cooper- 

 ated with the Food and Drug Administration or this subcommittee 

 or any other government agency, I would like to have you — have 

 you assure us that you will not retaliate against any of your em- 

 ployees for talking to the Food and Drug Administration. 



Mr. Sandefur. You have my assurance, Mr. Chairman. I'm not 

 in the habit of doing that. I want my people to be open and honest. 

 Absolutely. And I would encourage them to do so. 



Mr. Waxman. You encourage them to respond to government offi- 

 cials? 



Mr. Sandefur. Absolutely. 



Mr. Waxman. Would you be willing as well to release your em- 

 ployees from any confidentiality agreements that prevent them 

 from being available to talk to the FDA or any other government 

 agency? 



Mr. Sandefur. Mr. Chairman, the answer to that question is, 

 yes, if I can have the assurance by you and the subcommittee that 

 what you are told will be held in confidence. Because the majority 

 of the confidentiality agreements, I would say all of the confiden- 

 tiality agreements that we have with our current — our previous 

 employees are done so for security of proprietary information rea- 

 sons. That's why we have them. And I would be more than happy 

 to release anyone if I have your assurance and the subcommittee's 

 assurance that it will be treated in that fashion. 



Mr. Waxman. What we would like to do is to have you release 

 your employees, notwithstanding any confidentiality agreement 

 that you have with them, to talk to us or with the FDA on matters 

 that are not confidential. 



Mr. Sandefur. Certainly. 



Mr. Waxman. And not proprietary I guess is the term. 



Mr. Sandefur. Absolutely. I have absolutely no problem. As a 

 matter of fact, Mr. Chairman, if you want to come to Louisville, 

 and I will take you to Macon, I'll take you to Lancaster where we 

 do our sheet tobacco, I'll take you anywhere in my company and 

 show you anjrthing you want to see. 



Mr. Waxman. I thank you for the generous offer. 



Mr. McMillan. Mr. Chairman, if you would yield further on 

 that. 



Mr. Waxman. Yes, sir. 



Mr. McMillan. We discussed this yesterday a little bit with Dr. 

 Kessler and he was pleading that he couldn't reveal certain infor- 

 mation because of confidentiality. And I wondered if it would 

 please the Chair to perhaps apply the same standards to Dr. 

 Kessler and the FDA with respect to furnishing us with copies of 

 the same testimony according to the same standard that we are re- 

 questing of Mr. Sandefur. 



Mr. Waxman. I think that we ought to expect that Dr. Kessler 

 would supply us with any information that is not proprietary and 

 not confidential. 



Mr. BiLlRAKiS. Mr. Chairman, with your indulgence, may I? 



