By AP/Dan Modlin
Washington, D.C. – The U-S Senate has approved a plan to put new
restrictions on cigarette makers and to pay
tobacco farmers to give up federal quotas. Approval
of the legislative package came late Thursday afternoon.
The plan, which differs from a tobacco buy-out plan
recently approved in the U-S House, passed by a
78 to 15 vote. The Senate bill, unlike the measure
which recently came out of the House Ways and
Means Committee, would give the Food and Drug
Administration new powers. The Senate bill would
also make tobacco companies pay for the buy-out,
through a user fee that would be passed on to
smokers.