Landmark tobacco legislation 10 years in the making is close to becoming law, giving the Food and Drug Administration clear jurisdiction over tobacco products. Tobacco is widely blamed for causing 443,000 deaths a year in the United States.

President Obama, who has a history of being an occasional smoker, has expressed support for the bill. Once he signs it, the FDA will be authorized to regulate tobacco advertising and marketing and limit flavorings. But it won't be able to ban tobacco or the most popular flavoring, menthol, outright.

The Struggle For Regulation

In the mid-1990s, then-FDA commissioner David Kessler tried to claim power over tobacco. But in 2000, the Supreme Court said it would take an act of Congress to give FDA regulatory authority. Since then, legislators have been trying to do just that, without success.

Kessler says the new bill allows the FDA to reduce the number of people who smoke and gives the agency broad new powers.

"The legislation gives very strong controls to the FDA to regulate access, to regulate the product and to regulate advertising," he says. "The legislation was crafted in such a way that it creates a separate center within FDA and gives FDA resources. The tobacco industry ends up paying fees that, in 10 years, can end up being $600 million a year."

The bill puts tobacco regulation into the hands of new commissioner Margaret Hamburg. At her Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year, Hamburg said her agency can handle it.