[JURIST] The US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee [official website] approved a bill Wednesday to allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [official website] to regulate tobacco. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act [S 625 materials], introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and approved 13-8 by the committee, would require the FDA to limit tobacco advertising, enforce warning labels, and determine which tobacco products could be marketed as "reduced risk."

Last week, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said that the FDA does not have the resources [JURIST report] to handle the responsibility of tobacco regulation. The FDA first began to regulate the tobacco industry in 1996, but the US Supreme Court ruled in FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. [text] that Congress had not provided the FDA with authority to regulate tobacco products. AP has more.