Copy and paste, Watch,
Here it is in case Trish wants to yank the link...
First Battle Won: Long War to Come
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On Wednesday, January 28, 2004, HR2824 was marked-up by a single amendment submitted by Mark Green of Wisconsin and Marty Meehan of Massachusetts, and was reported out favorably by the House Judiciary Committee by a voice vote.
The GOOD NEWS is that, unlike the Senate bill, the House bill and its new amendment remained cigar-free and without any non-mailability provisions.
Thanks to the efforts of the Cigar Association of America (CAA), businesses within the industry and, of course, you guys, we have won a battle! We can not emphasize how important your direct input was to Judiciary and to your own elected representatives. While we in the industry are doing everything we can to prevent this lunacy, there is no doubt that the voices of individual passionate, cigar-smoking voters, such as you, helped SIGNIFICANTLY to keep HR2824 cigar-free! Bravo Zulu to All!
Now what? "The next crunch point will be the House/Senate conference committee which will meet to resolve the differences between the two bills," said Norman Sharp, the president of the CAA. "Once the conferees are appointed -- they tend to be the chief sponsors of the bills and chairmen of the relevant committees -- we will visit them and the appropriate staff members and try to get an assessment of where they stand..." In further comments, he expressed that, depending on how the Conference Committee members react to the CAA's effort to have cigars and the mail order ban stricken from the final bill will determine our next step. He states that our best tactic right now is to await the appointment of the conferees and then identify where they stand on this issue, before we mount another consumer campaign.
So, for now, we are being asked to "keep our powder dry," but be prepared to fire another round of letters to our elected officials when the need arises. We will continue to keep very close tabs on this situation and *** will remain vigilant in keeping cigar smokers informed of all major developments. While we may have won a battle, this is certain to be a long, hard war. Not only is this specific bill an issue, but various individual states are also considering cigar- shipping bans of their own, under the guise of protecting children. The anti-tobacco zealots are committed to abolishing our prerogative to enjoy a cigar, so we have to be steadfast in our own commitment to fight for our rights. However, for today, relish in our first of hopefully many victories for common sense - relax with a good cigar in hand, and prepare yourself for the legislative battles to come.