Krishnamoorthi, Wittman, Colleagues Push to Protect Children from Vaping by Prohibiting Illegal Imports from People’s Republic of China

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), partnered with Congressman Rob Wittman (R-VA) and other members of the committee, including Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI), in sending a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) urging them to work with the Customs and Boder Protection (CBP) agency to prevent the importation of illegal vaping products from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which continue to fuel the youth vaping epidemic. These e-cigarettes and related accessories imported from the PRC constitute more than half of all vaping products sold in the United States.

In their bipartisan letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and DOJ Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, the lawmakers emphasized the degree to which such PRC vaping products directly contribute to youth vaping through evading a national import ban:

The 2009 Tobacco Control Act (TCA) strictly prohibits manufacturers from introducing new products in the U.S. without going through the Pre-Market Authorization process. However, an estimated 90 percent of illicit vaping products without pre-market authorization arrive in the United States from manufacturers in the PRC, where flavored vaping products have been banned since 2022 for the Chinese domestic market. The vaping products often have custom designs, kid-friendly flavors, and can be quickly delivered to the United States.

Further, the members noted the central role of unregulated vaping products from the PRC in the youth vaping epidemic:

Deeply concerning to us, in 2023, 10 percent of high schoolers and 4.6 percent of middle schoolers, or 2.1 million youth, used e-cigarettes. While we were encouraged to see that FDA in May 2023 issued an import alert for disposable Elf Bar e-cigarettes, which are now the most popular e-cigarettes with youth, recent news reports suggest that Elf Bar is successfully evading this import ban.

In addition to urging the FDA and DOJ to curtail the illegal importation of illicit PRC vaping products through cooperation with the CBP, the members also requested updated information from the agencies regarding the current state of the FDA’s e-cigarette pre-market review process and from both agencies on investigative and enforcement efforts against illegal vaping imports from the PRC.

In addition to Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi, Congressman Wittman, and Chairman Gallagher, the letter was also signed by Reps. Andy Barr (R-KY), André Carson (D-IN), Neal P. Dunn (R-FL), Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ).

View the lawmakers' letter HERE.