00 SPONSOR SUBSTITUTE FOR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 7                                                                  
01 Relating to federal claims against funds obtained by settlement of state tobacco                                        
02 litigation.                                                                                                             
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
04  WHEREAS the State of Alaska, taking all of the risks inherent in litigation, brought                                 
05 suit against major cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers based on state antitrust and                           
06 consumer protection claims solely to collect the state's smoking-related expenditures; and                              
07  WHEREAS none of the claims asserted by the state were based on a Medicaid                                            
08 recoupment statute or included the assertion of claims based on federal law for the federal                             
09 government's tobacco-related Medicaid expenditures; and                                                                 
10  WHEREAS the State of Alaska entered into a settlement agreement in state court                                       
11 based on state antitrust and consumer protection law claims with cigarette and smokeless                                
12 tobacco companies for $669,000,000 on November 23, 1998; and                                                            
13  WHEREAS the federal government, through the Health Care Finance Administration,                                      
14 has asserted that it is entitled to a significant share of the state settlement on the basis that it                    
01 represents the federal share of Medicaid costs; and                                                                     
02  WHEREAS the federal government declined to bring its own action to assert a claim                                    
03 for the federal money it spent for the treatment of smoking-related illnesses in Alaska and                             
04 provided no assistance to the state during the litigation or during settlement negotiations; and                        
05  WHEREAS the federal government asserts that it is authorized and obligated, under                                    
06 the Social Security Act, to collect its share of any settlement funds attributed to Medicaid; and                       
07  WHEREAS the state tobacco lawsuit was brought for violation of state law under state                                 
08 law theories and the state lawsuit did not make any federal claims; and                                                 
09  WHEREAS the state bore all the risk and expense in the litigation brought in state                                   
10 court and settled without any assistance from the federal government; and                                               
11  WHEREAS the state is entitled to all of the funds negotiated in the tobacco settlement                               
12 agreement without any federal claim;                                                                                    
13  BE IT RESOLVED that the Twenty-First Alaska State Legislature respectfully                                           
14 requests the Congress to enact and the President to sign legislation to prohibit any federal                            
15 claim against money obtained by settlement of state tobacco litigation; and be it                                       
16  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Twenty-First Alaska State Legislature respectfully                                         
17 urges the President of the United States to direct the Health Care Finance Administration to                            
18 review the facts related to the tobacco settlement with the State of Alaska and refrain from                            
19 taking steps to pursue recoupment of dollars to which the federal government is not entitled.                           
20  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                              
21 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and President                            
22 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of the U.S. Department of                                 
23 Health and Human Services; the Honorable Trent Lott, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate;                                
24 the Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and to the                               
25 Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the                                         
26 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.