ALEXANDRIA, Va. — After working with House Energy and Commerce Committee members to include provisions that address retailer concerns, NACS has withdrawn its opposition to H.R. 1108, a bill that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco manufacturing and retailing.

For many years, NACS had opposed H.R. 1108 and similar legislation because of concerns over how the bill proposed to regulate the retail sale of tobacco.

"The current version of the legislation addresses all the concerns we had raised 18 months ago," said NACS Senior Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith. "We will not oppose this House bill as presently crafted," he said.

The House Energy and Commerce is scheduled to mark-up H.R. 1108, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, on April 2. NACS will continue to oppose the language of S. 625, the Senate version, unless the same changes are made.

NACS will provide a more detailed analysis of the bill after the April 2 markup.