MINNEAPOLIS -- The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products has submitted to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) the final “deeming” regulations on cigars, pipe tobacco, e-cigarettes, hookah tobacco, nicotine gels and dissolvable products, according to NATO News.

As reported in a 21st Century Smoke/CSP Daily NewsFlash, the submission of the final deeming regulations by the FDA to the OMB is the eighth step in the federal government’s nine-step regulatory process to deem whether the tobacco products are under the FDA’s jurisdiction. If the OMB approves the final regulations, then the ninth step requires that the final regulations be published in The Federal Register.

Generally, the regulations would be effective 30 days after the date of publication.

Although the FDA submitted the final set of regulations to the OMB, the final version of the deeming regulations was not made public. The OMB has a period of 90 days to review final federal agency regulations, but can extend the review time by another 30 days.

The deeming regulations were first proposed by the FDA in April 2014. As proposed, the FDA regulations contained two options. Option 1 would regulate all cigars, pipe tobacco, electronic cigarettes, nicotine gels, hookah tobacco and dissolvables, except accessories of a tobacco product. Option 2 would also regulate these six categories of tobacco products, but exempt premium cigars and tobacco product accessories from regulations. Exempt accessories would include such items as lighters, cigar cutters, humidors, cases and hookah accessories.

Under the deeming regulations, the FDA proposed that nine kinds of regulations already applicable to cigarettes, roll-your-own (RYO) tobacco and smokeless tobacco products be extended to the six additional product categories, except premium cigars and accessories under Option 2.

According to NATO News, the nine regulations include the following: