This past week, the Legislature wrapped up public hearings on bills and constitutional amendments as we moved past the midpoint of our 90-day session. We then transitioned to full-day debate on the bills that have been reported out by the various legislative committees. Prioritized bills, whether by the Speaker of the Legislature, personal priority bills, or bills prioritized by committees, will likely be the only ones outside the budget that will have the opportunity to be debated on the floor.
Two of the bills I introduced, LB9 and LB712, are priority bills. LB9 is a priority bill for the General Affairs Committee, and Senator Dorn made LB712 his personal priority bill. A third bill I introduced, LB125, was also amended into LB9. These bills all deal with the regulation and taxation of nicotine products. I’m often asked why I’ve spent a significant amount of time and effort on bills like these during my time here in the Legislature. The answer is simple. Our kids are getting hold of these products intended for use only by adults who are at least 21 years old. Further, the federal government has done little to regulate all the new nicotine products that have come onto the market since the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was signed in 1998.
Gone are the days of only seeing traditional tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco. We now have new tobacco-based products and a host of new synthetic nicotine products. These include vape products, tobacco pouches, nicotine pouches, and others we don’t even know about yet because they are in development.
We know that youth are using these new products. While usage of traditional tobacco products has continued to decline among children, the usage of nicotine pouches has doubled in the last year, according to the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The most recent survey in 2023 from the Department of Health and Human Services in Nebraska found that nearly 10% of kids under 18 used vaping products. The 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey reports a lower national percentage of youth under 18 using these products. That figure was 5.9%. Let’s do some math and put these numbers in perspective.
Let’s assume that the percentage of Nebraska kids under 18 using vaping products is closer to the national average at 5.9%. According to the U.S. Census there are 486,000 youth under 18 years of age in our state. 5.9% of that figure yields 27,216 children using vaping products. If that number of kids who vape was a city it would be the 6th largest city in our state. This is wholly unacceptable. Keep in mind that this does not include young people 18-21 years of age. You can’t legally buy tobacco or nicotine products until you are 21 years old.
LB125, which is included in LB9, places an excise tax on alternative nicotine products, like nicotine pouches and all future, new nicotine products. LB712 increases the excise tax on vaping products. I’ve been labeled “high-tax Hughes” for my efforts to place excise taxes on all these new nicotine products. I didn’t propose these measures because I love taxes. Excise taxes play a significant role in the effective enforcement of age-restricted products like alcohol and tobacco. Further, excise taxes have a significant impact on youth usage of these products.
A comprehensive study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that an increase in excise taxes significantly reduces youth usage of nicotine products. For every 50 cents of an excise tax on nicotine products, youth usage dropped 6.3%. This study clearly showed that excise taxes are effective in curtailing underage usage. This is why I have introduced these bills. The goal is to protect Nebraska youth. We don’t need to eradicate the gains we’ve made since the turn of the century in reducing the underage use of traditional tobacco products by addicting our children with new, innovative nicotine products.
Tobacco-related illnesses already pose a significant burden on Nebraska taxpayers, costing our state $174.4 million in Medicaid expenses each year. We have no idea of the long-term effects of using these new nicotine products. We do know that the FDA has stated that there are no safe tobacco or nicotine products. Federal courts have also ordered the companies that make these products to disclose that they’ve intentionally made them more addictive. Doing nothing is not an acceptable plan in preventing youth usage of these products.
This is the reason why I introduced bills in prior sessions to begin regulating and taxing these products. I’m grateful for my colleagues’ support in recently advancing LB9 to Select File by a vote of 41-0.
As always, if I can be of assistance to you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact my office. My staff members – Matt and Katie – are available to assist you with your needs and they pass along messages, so if you’d like a call back, please let them know!
Email: jhughes@leg.ne.gov
Phone: 402-471-2756
Facebook: Senator Jana Hughes
