The dangers of smoking had long been known, but by the late 1990s, the large tobacco companies were forced to publicly acknowledge just how detrimental their product was to the public’s health. Forty state attorneys general sued the major tobacco companies seeking monetary, equitable, and injunctive relief. The companies looked to the U.S. Congress for a national settlement so as to avoid multiple—and possibly endless—lawsuits. Known as the 1997 National Settlement Proposal, it called for payments to the states of $368.5 billion over 25 years, imposed Food and Drug Administration oversight, and placed restrictions on types of advertising. The settlement was rejected by Congress in 1998. Even while a national solution was being debated, some individual states settled with the major tobacco companies. By the end of 1998, the four major manufacturers of tobacco products had entered into agreements with all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

These states, including Arkansas, benefited greatly from this settlement. Arkansas’s share funded public campaigns on the dangers of both smoking and smokeless tobacco use, and it also led to the creation of the College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in 2001. The tobacco settlement funds are still being used to educate the public and train public health professionals. Congressman Snyder continued to work at the federal level on curbing tobacco companies' influence on Americans. In 2009, Snyder co-sponsored the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (H.R. 1256), which would impose new warnings and labels on tobacco packaging and advertisements.