WASHINGTON (CN) — After months of pressure from lawmakers to prevent the unauthorized sale of vaping devices, federal regulators may soon have to explain themselves before Congress.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee has long urged the Food and Drug Administration to follow through on a court-ordered review of premarket tobacco product applications from e-cigarette manufacturers.
The U.S. Court for the District of Maryland mandated the survey, ruling in 2019 that the FDA had run afoul of federal law by allowing unauthorized vape sales. The review was supposed to have been completed in 2021.
Durbin in a January letter accused the the agency of “granting a free pass to scores of vaping products that are harming the health of children in our country.”
Now, the Illinois Democrat is angling to haul FDA officials before Congress. He demanded in a letter Tuesday that Brian King, director of the agency’s Center for Tobacco Products, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Durbin extended a similar invite to Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division. Federal law enforcement is tasked with assisting the FDA in bringing enforcement for violations of the Tobacco Control Act, which includes marketing authorizations for vape manufacturers.
Durbin met with Boynton and King in April during a private meeting to discuss the enforcement of unauthorized e-cigarettes. If the officials agree to testify publicly, the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing in June.
A spokesperson for the FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would comply with the request.
In a Tuesday post on X, formerly Twitter, Durbin called out the FDA for what he framed as the agency’s lack of enforcement of the vaping market.
“Despite court-ordered deadlines, FDA continues to neglect its responsibility to enforce the removal of e-cigarette products from store shelves that have not proven they are ‘appropriate for the protection of public health,’” he wrote.
Congress in 2022 gave the agency the authority to regulate e-cigarettes that make devices using synthetic nicotine — meaning that manufacturers must now apply with the federal government for approval to market their products.
But Durbin has previously pointed out that the FDA has yet to issue any denials to companies that use synthetic tobacco in their e-cigarettes, calling it “outrageous” that the agency warns about the public health threats posed by such products while simultaneously failing to keep unauthorized vapes off store shelves.
The majority whip has also argued that the problem is made more urgent thanks to the appeal of synthetic tobacco vapes among children.
The FDA has taken some steps to crack down on the proliferation of unauthorized e-cigarettes. The agency last summer placed an import ban on Elfbar, a brand of Chinese-made disposable vapes. The FDA has also fined vape manufacturers who they say have dodged federal marketing regulations.
Durbin was hammering federal regulators over unauthorized vape sales as far back as September, when he told FDA Director Robert Califf that an investigation conducted by his staff had uncovered nearly two dozen e-cigarettes available online that did have government approval.
The Illinois Democrat also pointed out at the time that his office’s review did not include vape manufacturers who had pending marketing applications before, nor products that the FDA had already rejected.
According to November data from the Centers for Disease Control, roughly 12.6% of high school students reported using tobacco products in 2023. Around 10% of that figure came from e-cigarettes, CDC reported.
Follow @BenjaminSWeiss
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