The Senate to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21 as part of a spending bill to keep the government funded. The measure had already been approved by the House.
The restriction on tobacco sales has long been a push by a somewhat odd compilation of members, ranging from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a Kentucky Republican, and Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Todd Young of Indiana, and some of the chamber's top Democrats, including Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
Those lawmakers have been looking for a means to get the prohibition across the finish line, and now they've found one by attaching it to a must-pass series of bills to avoid a government shutdown.
The increased age restriction for tobacco purchases is one of several provisions outside the spending measures themselves that will be attached to the broader $1.4 trillion spending agreement and likely become federal law.
