WASHINGTON &#8212 The Seneca Nation&#8217s lucrative mail-order cigarette business appears

doomed.

The Senate late Thursday unanimously voted to ban the mailing of cigarettes, and

congressional sources said Friday the House is likely to adopt that Senate bill sometime in

the coming weeks.

After that, only one more thing &#8212 President Obama&#8217s signature &#8212 will be

needed to devastate a business that the Senecas claim now employs 1,000 in Western New York.

The Senecas vowed to keep fighting, even though the usual fractious Senate has united

against them and they found a mere 11 supporters in the 435-member House the last time the

issue came up.

&#8220We will not back down,&#8221 said Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr.

&#8220We will pursue an aggressive campaign of outreach and education to inform the voters of

Western New York which political leaders stand with the Seneca Nation and those who

don&#8217t.&#8221

Meanwhile, supporters of the bill &#8212 who argue that the mailing of cigarettes leads to

tax-dodging, shady profits and an increase in teen smoking &#8212 talked as if they were on

the cusp of winning their long legislative fight.

&#8220Today, we begin to provide law enforcement authorities with the tools they need to

combat a very serious threat to our states&#8217 coffers, national security and public

health,&#8221 said Sen. Herb Kohl, R-Wis., the chief Senate sponsor of the legislation.

Kohl might be a bit premature in his comments, but congressional sources and the

bill&#8217s supporters said its final enactment is now probably imminent.

Rather than setting up a conference committee to merge the slightly different versions of

the bill that the House and Senate have passed, congressional sources said House leaders

simply plan to have the House vote on the Senate measure.

For the Senecas &#8212 who rely on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver 70 percent of their

tobacco products &#8212 that&#8217s very bad news, because it will fast-track the legislation.

&#8220We hope the House will pass this bill quickly and that President Obama will act

swiftly to sign this common sense legislation into law so that we can put an end to the

illegal sale of tobacco products,&#8221 said Scott Ramminger, spokesman for the Coalition to

Stop Contraband Tobacco, which pulled together the big cigarette companies and retailers to

fight the mail-order cigarette trade.

While the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and American Cancer Society also fought for the

bill&#8217s passage, the Senecas pointed to Big Tobacco&#8217s role in pushing for the new

law. Altria, formerly Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard &#8212 tobacco giants all

&#8212 are key members of the coalition.

The Senecas warned that the economic impact of the bill on the tribe and on Western New

York would be devastating.

&#8220The ultimate effect of this legislation will turn the clock back on the Indians,

return us to the want, squalor and dependency of the past,&#8221 said J.C. Seneca, co-chairman

of the tribe&#8217s Foreign Relations Committee and a successful tobacco entrepreneur.

&#8220The small measure of self-sufficiency we have achieved to care for ourselves and our

people, to provide health and education programs and essential services, will drastically

diminish,&#8221 he added.

In addition, the bill, called the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act, increases

government power over Indian tribes and intrudes on their sovereignty, said Richard Nephew,

chairman of the Seneca Nation Council.

&#8220The passage of the PACT Act should draw outrage and opposition from every corner of

Indian Country,&#8221 he said. &#8220Aside from tobacco, all Indian nations should be

concerned about the federal government&#8217s attempt to confer further jurisdictional power

to states over Indian territories; this invites much trouble.&#8221

Of course, the Senecas have been saying such things for months, especially targeting Sens.

Kirsten E. Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., in a publicity campaign that didn&#8217t

change the senators&#8217 minds.

Gillibrand, in Buffalo on Friday, noted that without the law, children can use borrowed or

stolen credit cards to order cigarettes on the Internet.

&#8220We want to do everything we can to help the Senecas to continue to be such a vital

part of the economic growth of this community,&#8221 she said. &#8220We just want to help them

in ways that don&#8217t also endanger children.&#8221

BuffaloNews.com Live: Hear more from Gillibrand's appearance in Buffalo

Meanwhile, Schumer said: &#8220Cigarettes should not be sold in the mail or anywhere else

to children or minors. We greatly appreciate and have supported the role of the Senecas in

economic development in Western New York, and will continue to work with them.&#8221

While banning the mailing of cigarettes, the bill would still allow private shippers to

deliver tobacco products. But many &#8212 including FedEx, UPS and DSL &#8212 have bowed to

state pressure and refused to ship them.

The PACT Act would go after the Senecas&#8217 cigarette business in other ways as well.

Most notably, it requires those selling cigarettes on the Internet to:

Pay all federal, state, local or tribal tobacco taxes and affix tax stamps before

delivering any tobacco products to any customer.

Register with the state where they are based and make periodic reports to state tax

collection officials.

Check the age and ID of customers both when they purchase tobacco and when the tobacco

products are delivered.

To advocates of the bill, it all adds up to a good way to control cigarette sales that now

take place out of the reach of tax collectors and behind the backs of parents.

&#8220Let&#8217s face facts: Cigarettes kill people, and when these bootleg operations lose,

the public wins,&#8221 said Gretchen Leffler, regional vice president of the American Cancer

Society in Western New York.

News Niagara Bureau Reporter Aaron Besecker contributed to this report.