A bill that's being called an important first step towards addressing the national problem of underage drinking was approved by both the U.S. Senate and House this week, and heads to President Bush's desk for approval.

The Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act, which was initially approved on a 373-23 vote in the House of Representatives on Nov. 14, passed the Senate by unanimous consent on Dec. 6 and won final approval in a slightly amended form in the House on Dec. 7. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.

"Passage of the STOP Act represents a long-overdue acknowledgment of the need to do more as a nation to address the harm caused by underage drinking," said George Hacker, director of the alcohol policies project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a strong supporter of the bill. "Unlike illicit drugs, there has been no credible national plan to combat alcohol problems, by far the greater health and safety drag on our nation. That is a huge gap that must be filled, and the STOP Act is a step in the right direction."

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Major provisions of the STOP Act include a $1-million annual national media campaign on underage drinking; $5 million in grants to help community coalitions address underage drinking; $5 million in grant funding to prevent alcohol abuse at institutions of higher education; requiring the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to produce an annual report on state underage-drinking prevention and enforcement activities; establishing a federal interagency coordinating committee on underage drinking; and authorizing $6 million for research on underage drinking.

"Congress has never passed a bill on underage-drinking before," David Jernigan, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, told Join Together. "HHS has never been required to keep an eye on the issue to this extent. The annual report will be a great tool and will keep [underage drinking] from falling off the agenda."

Many facets of the bill were based on the recommendations found in the "Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility" report, released in 2003 by the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

"Through the hard-hitting public-service ads funded under the measure, parents will get a strong message about the dangers of underage drinking," said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of the measure along with Rep. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.).

Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) sponsored the Senate version of the bill. Roybal-Allard is poised to become a member of the majority on the House health appropriations committee, which advocates say will help ensure that the STOP Act gets fully funded going forward.

The passage of the STOP Act was notable not only for the bipartisan backing it received in Congress but also for its broad range of outside supporters, including familiar addiction groups like the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America; public-health organizations and alcohol-industry critics like the American Medical Association, CSPI, and CAMY; faith-based organizations such as the United Methodist General Board on Church and Society and the Southern Baptist Convention; and alcohol-industry leaders like the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) and the Century Council.

Kim Miller, CSPI's manager of federal relations, said that the alcohol industry, which opposed the STOP Act for years, finally came to the table after being approached by Osborne. The current bill represents a compromise crafted in negotiations that saw the industry succeed in removing language it found objectionable -- including a call for a ban on alcohol ads at NCAA sports events -- while retaining enough of the core legislation to satisfy public-health leaders, said Miller.

"At the end of the day, we all came to an agreement," said CAMY's Jernigan. Added Craig Purser, president of the NBWA: "This was a good example of people with different agendas checking their differences at the door and finding something to work on together."

Purser told Join Together that he hopes that there will be other areas where the industry and "the folks on the control side" can work together. "We're hopeful that this is the beginning of something good," he said.