To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to clarify that any person who, for a commercial purpose, makes available for consumer use a machine capable of producing tobacco products, is a manufacturer of tobacco products.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss H.R. 4134, which I introduced on March 5, 2012. This legislation will curtail a tax abuse involving the mass production of cigarettes through ``roll-your-own'' machines at retail establishments. Currently, so-called ``pipe tobacco'' is taxed at rates dramatically less than ``cigarette tobacco'' and ``roll-your-own tobacco.'' That has had the effect of forming an industry of retailers that put RYO machines in their stores that allow customers to manufacture cigarettes for far less than the cost of name-brand cigarettes.

My legislation will require that RYO cigarettes are produced on a level playing field with all other cigarettes. In doing so--and this is very important--H.R. 4134 should be read as applying prospectively only--neither retailers nor consumers of RYO cigarettes before the date of enactment of my legislation should be forced to pay any taxes on cigarettes manufactured in these machines and sold before the date of enactment. I understand that there is litigation pending in this regard brought by the Department of the Treasury. My legislation should end that litigation and settle this issue once and for all.

I also want to note that H.R. 4134 is not intended to affect small, hand-operated devices used by customers at home to assemble roll-your- own cigarettes. These small devices, which customers take away from the retail establishment in original packaging and use for personal convenience and not for commercial purposes, have been sold for many decades without giving rise to the tax avoidance abuse my legislation seeks to address.

I am very pleased that Senator Max Baucus amended the Senate-passed highway transportation bill with language very similar to my bill. I look forward to working with him and others in order to enact this law, and I urge my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 4134 in the House of Representatives.