Tobacco Farmers' Relief Act

H.R. 769, the Tobacco Farmers' Relief Act, was introduced to provide tax relief to tobacco growers and those who held tobacco production rights (quotas). The bill proposed changing the tax code so that certain payments received by these farmers from the landmark 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between states and tobacco companies would not be counted as taxable income.

For the average citizen in the tobacco industry, this would have meant keeping more of the settlement money intended to help them transition through economic changes in the industry. By excluding these payments from federal gross income, the bill aimed to ensure that the financial assistance reached farmers in full rather than being reduced by federal taxes. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means but did not become law.