Congressional Cigar Caucus Co-Chairs Meuser and Carter Applaud Court Ruling Vacating the FDA’s Authority Over Premium Cigars

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Co-Chairs of the Congressional Cigar Caucus, Congressmen Dan Meuser (PA-09) and Troy Carter (LA-02) commended the remedy issued by Judge Amit Mehta vacating the FDA’s authority to regulate premium cigars. The remedy, which takes effect immediately, follows a decision rendered last year in which the FDA was found to have acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it deemed premium cigars to be under its jurisdiction.

The court emphasized that its decision was based on the FDA having failed on multiple occasions to provide scientific evidence to support extending their authority over premium cigars, and that they were willfully ignorant of contradicting evidence when it was supplied to them during the rulemaking process. The court highlighted that on one occasion the FDA went so far as to intentionally "obscure the math" to make it appear as though underage smokers were gravitating to premium cigars.

The legislative intent of the Tobacco Control Act, the law that set parameters for FDA jurisdiction over tobacco, was to address youth usage and nicotine addiction. According to the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health, the National Institute of Health's longitudinal study of tobacco use in the United States, less than 0.1% of youth report ever consuming a premium cigar and adult consumers of premium cigars average less than 2 cigars per month.

"The FDA had no business bringing premium cigars under its jurisdiction, and I am pleased that the courts agree,” said Congressman Dan Meuser. “I'm glad to see the court system has checked this regulatory overreach and granted some peace of mind to the hundreds of thousands of people that work in the industry. Pennsylvania is highly respected in the cigar industry for growing specialty tobaccos, and this ruling is a win for all of the farmers, wholesale distributors, and retailers in my district, which are overwhelmingly small businesses. Congratulations to the Cigar Association of America, the Premium Cigar Association, and Cigar Rights of America for this victory. It would not have been possible without your tireless efforts and advocacy on behalf of the small business owners that make up the cigar industry.”

Congressman Troy Carter said, "This ruling is an important victory for small businesses. The proposed FDA regulations imposed burdens on small business owners while offering no public health benefit. The Court found that the agency ignored relevant data. I generally support the rule-making processes of the FDA, but this time they overstepped.”

The Congressional Cigar Caucus is a bipartisan working group of more than 50 Members of Congress. The Caucus promotes educational opportunities for lawmakers to better inform policies impacting the cigar industry.

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