NBCC has also received funding from and lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry. Tobacco company Altria was scheduled to sponsor the 2004 Fall Summit meeting in Negril, Jamaica. It had previously received funding from Altria's predecessor Philip Morris Companies Inc and from the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and facilitated marketing access to its members. In March 2011, Alford appeared before a U. S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel to oppose proposed restrictions on menthol cigarettes, which are used disproportionately by African Americans. In doing so, he sided with Lorillard, whose major product was mentholated Newport cigarettes, and which had been an NBCC member since 2008, paying $35,000 in dues annually.