How would millions of dollars in fees on e-cigarettes be spent? Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi have a plan for that.

A fee placed on manufacturers and importers of e-cigarettes could fund a federal prevention program to arm educators and students with tools to fight the teen vaping epidemic, according to pending legislation proposed by Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Durbin and Krishnamoorthi planned to announce the federal legislation, dubbed the Prevent Act (Providing Resources to End the Vaping Epidemic Now for Teenagers), at an event Friday at Jones College Prep.

Teen e-cigarette use “is growing by the day, and it points to a public health crisis facing our nation’s youth,” said Krishnamoorthi, D-Schaumburg. Adequate prevention and education will be “a massive undertaking, but if we do it now, we have a chance of arresting this epidemic. And we have to do it immediately.”