Senecas See Comeback Over Sale Of Cigarettes

WASHINGTON,  -- On Saturday, March 6, 2010, The New York Times ran an article highlighting the Seneca Nation of Indians' opposition to the S. 1147, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act. This legislation, which is currently pending in the U.S. Senate, has a wide array of support from law enforcement officials to members of the public health community and passed by the House of Representatives last May with overwhelming bipartisan support.

"Bipartisan legislators and more than 180 members of the Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco agree with this legislation, and as the article states, 'there is a relatively short list of people who like mail-order cigarettes: teenagers, adults evading sales taxes and the Seneca Nation of Indians of western New York.' The PACT Act will help combat the sale of illegal cigarettes, require Internet sellers to pay state and local excise taxes before they send tobacco products and impose federal age verification requirements for online sales," said Scott Ramminger, AWMA president and CEO and coalition spokesperson.

The article, "Senecas See Comeback Over Sale of Cigarettes," noted that the PACT Act passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in December, but two or three Democratic Senators privately said they may try to block the full Senate from passing the bill.

To read the entire New York Times article go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/us/06seneca.html.

"We call on the Senate to move forward on the PACT Act and swiftly to pass this common sense legislation so that we can put an end to the illegal sale of tobacco products," concluded Ramminger.

The Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco is a group of individuals, associations, businesses and other organizations that share the goal of enacting legislation that will eliminate underage access to tobacco on the Internet, curtail associated illegal activities and capture lost state excise tax revenues.