Report on Tobacco Deal Due in Sept.

WASHINGTON —  A White House task force reviewing the historic tobacco industry settlement probably won’t hand its report over to President Clinton until he returns from vacation next month, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Friday.

With Congress on recess this month and the president leaving for a three-week vacation Aug. 17, there’s little reason for the task force to rush its final report to Clinton. The panel is expected to complete its review of the $368.5-billion settlement next week, McCurry said, yet “probably won’t deliver the recommendations to the president until September.”

McCurry said earlier this week that Clinton will announce his position on the settlement, reached June 20 between tobacco companies and state attorneys general, soon after he returns to work Sept. 7.

The settlement gives tobacco companies immunity from future class-action lawsuits and caps damages that they pay to settle current lawsuits in exchange for accepting Food and Drug Administration regulation and limits on their advertising.

Clinton has said the government’s ability to regulate nicotine must be strengthened. He also has said the agreement must meet his goal of curbing smoking by teenagers.

One option, his economic advisors say, is increasing the penalties--currently capped at $2 billion a year--that cigarette makers must pay if teen smoking rates don’t decline.

White House domestic policy advisor Bruce Reed and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala head the task force reviewing the pact.

Although some HHS staff members question whether tobacco companies should have immunity from future lawsuits, protection from costly litigation is hallowed ground for the companies.

“If [the White House] were to change immunity, that would send the industry packing,” said attorney J. Phil Carlton, a representative for tobacco companies. “That protection is absolutely all this industry gets in this resolution.”

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who must approve the settlement for it to take effect, already have warned against loading it up with burdensome penalties that could scuttle an agreement that includes hard-won concessions by the cigarette companies.

Right now, the review period marks a negotiating phase in which tobacco critics look for ammunition to press for more concessions.

Critics got some fodder this week when cigarette makers released eight previously secret documents that suggested tobacco companies discussed thwarting scientific research on the dangers of smoking. Similar internal company documents had previously been disclosed.

Yet analysts say that the pragmatists among the president’s advisors still hold a huge advantage.

“The documents, in my opinion, didn’t really add anything to what we already know,” said Gary Black of the Sanford C. Bernstein investment firm in New York. The firm is the eighth-largest institutional investor in Philip Morris, with 28.9 million shares, and the third-largest investor in RJR Nabisco, with 13.1 million shares.

“Clinton, being the realist he is, might just end up using these records as a reason to increase the price tag to $420 billion, or thereabouts, and leave the immunity issue alone,” Black said.