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Statement by Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook on the Senate Vote on Legal Immunity for Big Tobacco

May 21, 1998

Statement by Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook on the Senate Vote on Legal Immunity for Big Tobacco

Today?s vote on the Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)-Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) amendment is a major victory for public health. The Senate responded to the will of the American people by excluding any immunity deals for the tobacco industry.

Big Tobacco deserves no special protections from liability. New documents are coming out every day showing the vast extent of the tobacco industry?s misdeeds, and it should not be able to evade responsibility for its decades of deceit. The failure to kill the Gregg-Leahy amendment clears the way for the Senate and the Congress to pass tough tobacco legislation that protects families and not tobacco company profits.

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