hey sorry bout that guys azmac’s link was deleted, I found a new one just now they can’t hide the truth:http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=4137138Also it doesn’t matter if your for or against smoking as taxing has caused many to quit or cut down. This is about giving FDA control to a private [tag]business[/tag] and stuffing earmarks into bills.read it here if you don’t know:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/[tag]business[/tag]/13tobacco.html?_r=1&ref=politicscomment here if you want to discusshttp://www.topix.com/us/2009/06/with-house-vote-tobacco-bill-goes-to-obama#c4Let me also tell you that this bill has a hidden clause to it:azmac from topix found it They put in federal employee TSP Roth funding in here - the tobacco taxes from the bill help hide the cost of this - if it wasn’t in there the tobacco bill would have reduced the budget.Thrift Savings Plan. The bill would require that newly hired federal employees who are eligible for the TSP be automatically enrolled in that program. The automatic enrollment of participants in TSP would increase the matching contributions of the civilian agencies that employ them (which are paid from personnel budgets and are usually consideredspending subject to appropriation) by creating a greater and earlier participation rate of employees in the program. According to data from a 2006 survey conducted by the Federal Thrift Retirement Investment Board, 52 percent of employees enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System voluntarily contribute to the TSP in their first yearof eligibility, but 86 percent contribute by their sixth year.(Although federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System are also eligible to participate in the TSP, they would not be affected by automatic enrollment.) Using information from that survey, CBO expects that under automatic enrollment more than 90 percent of eligiblenew entrants would contribute to the TSP in their first year and that a similar proportion would continue to contribute by their 10th year (some would opt out in the beginning and others would likely change their status in the future).http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10025/hr1 …[PDF file - takes a bit to load]And this changed too in the tobacco billChanging the calculation of federal retirement benefits under the Federal Employees Retirement System to reflect accrued sick leave hours would raise average retirement benefits paid to individuals.Retirement Credit for Sick Leave. Currently, the retirement benefit calculation for federal employees in FERS does not incorporate any accrued sick leave hours. Under H.R. 1256, eligible federal employees who retire after enactment would add 100 percent of their remaining sick leave hours to their total years of service when calculating the retirement benefit owed. CBO estimates that an average of about three months would be added to employees’ length of service as a result of including sick leave hours. That addition is estimated to boost the average retirement benefit by about $150 per year, increasing direct spending over the 2010-2019 period by $0.6 billion.