Allocate $310 million toward tobacco control, coalition urges

CDC Office on Smoking and Health eliminated

The ADA and 88 other groups are urging Congress to fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health after it was eliminated during a government overhaul. 

Led by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the coalition sent two letters April 30 to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives asking them to fund the tobacco control office at $310 million for fiscal year 2026. Both the House and Senate are currently considering appropriating appropriations bills for government departments.

“We are deeply concerned by the recent mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, including the elimination of CDC [Office on Smoking and Health]. At a time when there is renewed focus on preventing chronic disease and protecting children’s health, it is essential that Congress provide [the] CDC with resources to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use as well as other risks to public health,” the coalition said. 

In the letters, the coalition highlighted that more than 16 million Americans are living with a tobacco-caused disease and more than 1.6 million American youth, including 7.8% of high schoolers, reported using e-cigarettes last year. 

The coalition said the elimination of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health will have a “profoundly negative” effect on the country’s efforts to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco. 

“Backsliding on efforts to prevent kids from using tobacco products or to help adult tobacco users to quit will cost additional lives and increase health care expenditures,” the coalition said. 

The Office on Smoking and Health has provided grants to all 50 states and territories to support tobacco prevention and cessation programs, the coalition notes. It has also run a national media campaign about tobacco cessation services and provided funding to state quitlines, which provide telephone-based counseling services and tobacco cessation medications to help people who would like to quit. 

The Office on Smoking and Health supports efforts to reduce youth tobacco use, including e-cigarette use, and strengthen efforts to reduce tobacco use where smoking rates and tobacco-caused disease are greatest.

“We urge you to reject the administration’s elimination of [the] CDC Office on Smoking and Health] and appropriate funds for [the] CDC to continue its work to reduce tobacco use,” the coalition said. “With $310 million, [the] CDC will be able to address the challenges posed by e-cigarettes and continue to make progress reducing the death and disease caused by other tobacco products, especially those most at risk for tobacco-caused disease.”