Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, says the Senate reignited hope Wednesday for his version of tobacco reform when it snuffed out a competing bill it had debated for a month.

The Senate failed on two votes to cut off debate to allow a vote on a tobacco bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which President Clinton has pushed hard. The bill was then pulled from the floor."This bill was a dog," Hatch said, contending it would have been unconstitutional, would have raised tobacco prices so high it would have created a black market and had become a vehicle to fund a variety of spending proposals not related to smoking.

"Along the way, radicals in the public health arena and politicians who wanted to beat their breast that they were more anti-tobacco than others hijacked this bill and used it to go on a spending binge," he said.

Hatch for months has urged Congress instead to adopt his competing bill. It follows closely an agreement proposed by tobacco companies and states' attorneys general last year to end state lawsuits by agreeing to huge payments and advertising curbs.

Hatch said McCain's bill would have imposed even higher fees on tobacco companies, which he contends are unconstitutional unless they voluntarily agree to them - and they wouldn't. Hatch says they would agree to more moderate payments in his bill.

McCain's bill would have raised cigarette prices by an estimated $1.10 on the wholesale level, but Hatch contended extra markups on retail levels would have raised prices by $3.61 a pack. (The main House bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, has similar increases).

Hatch says his bill would raise prices by 70 to 90 cents a pack, if costs are passed on to consumers.

He said that is high enough to discourage smoking without creating a black market, would avoid challenges about the bill's constitutionality and would provide money for research and treatment of smoking-related diseases.

Hatch said he voted not to cut off debate on McCain's bill because he wanted to keep alive consideration of his alternate bill - and did not like the idea of others to pass McCain's bill and send it to a House-Senate conference where it might be improved.

"To go to conference with a dog is a bad strategy. It would encourage the House to pass something just as bad, so it could try to show it is just as tough on smoking," Hatch said.

But Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, disagreed about such strategy and was one of few Republicans who voted to end debate and allow a vote on McCain's bill.

"I was sorry to disappoint the Senate Republican leadership but felt I had to cast a vote against big tobacco and in support of our children," he said, adding he also preferred Hatch's bill but blamed Democrats for blocking including it in the debate.

"Absent that option, I voted to move forward with the anti-tobacco legislation before the Senate in the hope that we could improve on it as it moved through the process," he said.

While Bennett didn't see much hope remaining for tobacco reform this year, Hatch said he believes something will pass - and he and allies are looking for opportunities to attach his legislation to other bills or otherwise have it considered.

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Democrats, meanwhile, blamed Republicans for the action Wednesday they said amounted to killing tobacco reform and vowed to make it an issue this election year.

Also, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said Democrats will try to add tobacco reform to every major piece of legislation that the Senate considers the rest of the year - which might also give Hatch a chance to push his scaled-down alternative.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., issued a statement that House Republicans intended to push narrowly focused tobacco legislation intended to "reduce teen smoking, not increase taxes."

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., applauded that. "I hope that we can convince Senate Democrats and the White House to join us in that effort without again resorting to the big-government, big-tax, big-spending bill that was defeated today."

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