By NANCY ZUCKERBROD, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Senate approved a plan Thursday to put new restrictions on cigarette makers and pay tobacco farmers $12 billion to give up federal quotas propping up their prices.
An unlikely alliance of anti-smoking advocates and tobacco-state senators teamed up to secure the 78-15 vote to combine a 10-year buyout for tobacco growers with new Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) powers.
The measure was added as an amendment to a corporate tax bill and broke weeks of deadlock over how to proceed with negotiations on that bill. The Senate approved the tax bill by voice vote and sent it to a House-Senate conference committee, where negotiators will attempt to work out differences between the two chambers' versions of the legislation.
Supporters had worked to get the buyout and new FDA (news - web sites) authority to regulate cigarettes attached to the tax bill so talks could begin with the House on a compromise. The FDA would regulate tobacco not as a drug but as an entirely separate product category.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=716&e=5&u=/ap/20040716/ap_on_go_co/tobacco_buyout