WASHINGTON – The vote on President Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Scott Gottlieb, has moved from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to the Senate floor yesterday.

In a 14-9 vote, the Senate committee moved Gottlieb’s confirmation to its final stage, setting up another vote on the Senate floor.

If Gottlieb is confirmed, his appointment could usher in an easing of regulation on tobacco and other convenience-related categories, according to Greg Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, Hoboken, N.J.

“We are hopeful that Mr. Gottlieb will change the culture or will at least start to change the culture and attitudes toward tobacco harm reduction at the FDA,” Conley said. 

Conley told CSP Daily News that during his confirmation hearings, Gottlieb stated his openness to electronic cigarettes as a less-harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes. Conley said that Mitch Zeller, the current head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), which oversees tobacco products, has mostly sided with anti-tobacco groups that consider all tobacco products harmful.

During his Senate hearings, Gottlieb chimed in on the electronic-cigarette debate but held off judgment on one of the product’s most disputed elements: flavor bans. He declined to commit to a ban on flavored cigarettes, according to Washington, D.C.-based publication The Hill.