Califf. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
FDA Commissioner Robert Califf wouldn't commit to a timeline for issuing a ban on menthol cigarettes Thursday, telling House appropriators when pressed that he hoped it would be this year.
Why it matters: The Biden administration has already missed self-imposed deadlines for issuing the high-profile rule, raising questions about whether it could be slow-walked past the elections.
- A ban is expected to prevent the deaths of thousands of Black Americans each year, though civil rights groups are divided on whether it could result in increased policing of Black communities.
Driving the news: At a House Appropriations hearing Thursday on FDA's FY25 budget request, Rep. Barbara Lee, a ban supporter, pressed Califf on when the final rule is coming out.
- "Can you let us know when it will be finalized and what the holdups are and how we can move this along?" Lee asked.
- Califf responded: "This is a top priority for us. But when we make a final rule, it goes through an intensive interagency process, and that's where it is right now. I can't give details about dates."
- When Lee pressed again for a timeframe and asked whether the rule would be issued by the end of the year, Califf responded, "I would sure hope so."
Timing is sensitive because the White House has until around Memorial Day to issue major regulations that won't be at risk of being rolled back if Republicans sweep both houses of Congress and the White House in November.
- But the ban still is expected to be challenged in court regardless of when it's issued.
- House Republicans attached a rider to last year's Agriculture-FDA appropriations bill that would have prevented FDA from banning menthol, but it fell out during negotiations on the final funding package.
