Obama: Bill allowing greater regulation of tobacco defines true change in Washington

Obama: Tobacco bill ‘defines change’ in Washington

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says a bill giving the government much greater power to regulate tobacco “truly defines change in Washington.”

The president spoke in the Rose Garden just minutes after the House passed the bill overwhelmingly. The Senate approved the legislation on Thursday.

It gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate how cigarettes and other tobacco products are made, marketed and sold. It could curb the roughly 400,000 deaths a year attributed to smoking. The bill cracks down on sales practices that lure young people into smoking.

Obama said the bill overcame a decade of opposition. The president said the “harmful, addictive and often deadly” effects of tobacco have been known for decades.