Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) along with U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Jack Reed (D-RI) sent letters to Reynolds American and Altria Group to inquire about these Big Tobacco companies' engagement with the Trump Administration, following the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent misguided decisions to unleash kid-friendly flavored e-cigarettes.

Reynolds American's recent $5 million donation and Altria Group's millions of dollars in contributions towards President Trump's political operation appears to have enabled tobacco manufacturers to circumvent federal law and unlawfully sell unauthorized e-cigarettes. In the letters, the Senators raise serious concerns about the suspicious timeline of political donations to President Trump and the timing of FDA's announcement.

The Senators wrote, "After political contributions by the companies-which followed which followed donations to President Trump's gold-plated ballroom and campaign-and lunch at the President's golf resort, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an alarming new industry guidance. This May 8, 2026, FDA guidance grants enforcement discretion to permit kid-friendly, flavored e-cigarettes to be sold on the market without obtaining the law's required pre-market regulatory authorization."

The Senators continued, "FDA's abrupt reversal and decision to grant a free pass to addictive and harmful vapes will cause irreparable harm to children across the country and the agency's independence from political influence. But for you and your shareholders, this was a lucrative payday after years of unsuccessful legislative and regulatory efforts to weaken federal tobacco oversight."

The Senators posed a series of questions to understand how many new and unauthorized e-cigarettes manufactured by Reynolds and Altria may be on the market following FDA's recent guidance to grant enforcement discretion to addictive, flavored e-cigarettes that lack the FDA's lawfully required authorization. The Senators request a response to various questions by July 2, 2026.

The Senators' letter to Reynolds American can be found here.

The Senators' letter to Altria Group can be found here.

The recent actions by FDA include authorizing the first-ever non-tobacco or menthol-flavored vaping products (mango and blueberry); FDA issuing final guidance permitting e-cigarettes that lack FDA authorization to remain on the market in violation of the law; and former FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary resigning, at least partially, in protest of these actions. By authorizing fruit flavors that are primarily used by children, FDA is once again enabling youth tobacco use and exacerbating the risk of serious chronic disease and death for a new generation. Durbin recently sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., urging him to push back on these actions.

Durbin has been a vocal leader in the fight against Big Tobacco since he lost his father to lung cancer when Durbin was 14 years old. He went after Big Tobacco when he served in the House of Representatives and led the charge to ban smoking on airplanes, which eventually led to bans on smoking in restaurants, office buildings, trains, and other locations. Durbin has also led efforts to grant FDA jurisdiction over tobacco, raise tobacco taxes to prevent youth initiation, and enhance support for tobacco cessation tools.

In May, Durbin pressed the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dr. Jay Bhattacharya about the Trump Administration's failure to protect children from nicotine addiction and exposure to toxic chemicals as Big Tobacco continues to push kid-friendly flavored e-cigarettes during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. During last month's Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing about the President's Fiscal Year 2027 budget request for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Durbin called on Secretary Kennedy to crack down on illegal e-cigarette products, especially those targeting children.

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