Sen. Tim Kaine pressed Heidi Overton over a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration is preparing to rewrite parts of the FDA’s tobacco-application process to move products like flavored vapes and nicotine pouches through authorization more quickly. In practice, that could make it easier for more of those products to legally reach the U.S. market. The reported plan would revisit a 2021 rule that spells out what manufacturers must submit when seeking FDA authorization for new tobacco products; the Journal noted the plans could still change. Overton currently serves as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and repeatedly said she had not been involved in those discussions, even as Kaine clarified that he was asking whether she was aware of them.
