The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday that for the first time would bring down the full force of the government's regulatory hammer on the tobacco industry.
The measure, which anti-smoking advocates have pursued for decades, would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products, including the power to dictate ingredients and nicotine levels in cigarettes.
The bill passed 79-17, with Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina joining 16 Republicans in opposing the legislation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House, which passed its own bill in April, would likely adopt the Senate version Friday and move it quickly to President Obama for signing.
"I believe it will be possible for us to accept their bill and send it right on to the president," the California Democrat said.
The bill would immediately impose sweeping restrictions on the marketing and sale of cigarettes to children, such as limiting where cigarette companies can advertise and banning all tobacco-brand sponsorship of sports and entertainment events.
"The United States Senate has finally said 'no' to Big Tobacco," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who sponsored the bill but missed the vote because he is battling brain cancer.
"Decades of irresponsible delay are finally over," the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement released after the vote.
Mrs. Hagan and North Carolina's other senator, Republican Richard M. Burr, led efforts to defeat the bill. Their state is the country's top tobacco producer, home to 12,000 tobacco farms and 65,000 tobacco-industry jobs.
They argued that the Food and Drug Administration was ill-equipped to oversee the tobacco industry and that the agency would undermine efforts to develop safer tobacco products by regulating ingredients in cigarettes.
