At a press conference today, Senators Kennedy, Lautenberg, Durbin, and Wyden spoke out in response to the Bush Justice Departments decision to decrease compensation owed to American taxpayers by tobacco companies from $130 billion to $10 billion. In a letter to the Inspector General today, the Senators will call on the Department of Justice to request an investigation into the appropriateness of this action...
STATEMENT BY SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY
'Instead of addressing the greatest health risk of our time, smoking, this Administration lets Big Tobacco Companies off the hook.
The decision of the Bush Administration to ignore the testimony of its own expert witnesses and seek only token financial damages from the tobacco industry is outrageous. It is obvious that this Administration is more concerned about the profits of the big tobacco companies than it is about the health of the American people...'