What’s Hot: Department of Health and Human Services MAHA Commission issues first report
This past Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.s’ Make America Healthy Again Commission published its first report, to an ambivalent reception both inside and outside the Trump administration.
Titled “Make Our Children Healthy Again,” the report tackles what it characterizes as a chronic disease crisis in America’s young ones, stemming from a diet heavy in ultra-processed and sugar-sweetened foods in addition to forever chemicals (industrial substances like PFAS that don’t breakdown in the body or environment), sedentary lifestyles, and “overmedicalization.”
While President Trump sat shoulder-to-shoulder with Secretary Kennedy for the report’s presentation, Congressional Republicans and food industry leaders took umbrage with the Commission’s castigation of pesticides, food additives, and food products ranging from seed oil to corn syrup, with the American Soybean Association characterizing the Commission’s advisements against certain ultra-processed foods as “unscientific” and “anti-farmer.”
Additionally, despite the report’s concern about “forever chemicals” along with the dominance of sugar-sweetened foods in the American diet and their deleterious effect on public health, having reasonable scientific backing, food experts cite the MAHA Commission’s unscientific interests.
Watchdog: As budget bill passes House, cuts to food access loom
President Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill has been passed to the Senate after vigorous debate in the House. While Senate Republican leaders have voiced opposition to what they see as spending excesses in this new budget, in actuality, Trump’s plan includes cuts to a number of essential public programs supporting food access nationwide.
Namely, the bill will reshape SNAP to the detriment of not only its participants, but also the states that administer this cornerstone of public food assistance. Eligibility will be tightened and significant program costs will be shifted to the states. Previously, adults between the ages of 18 and 54 had to meet a work requirement in order to receive food stamps. The new plan extends the age up to 64. The proposal also requires all states to pay a minimum 5 percent of food benefit costs —the dollar amount distributed directly to recipients to buy groceries—whereas currently, states pay none of these benefits. Each state’s share will vary based on their payment error rates, a federal metric that reflects how often a state incorrectly distributes SNAP funds, either by overpaying or underpaying recipients. In New York, this shift could result in the state covering between $366 million and $1.8 billion of benefit costs annually. States also pay only half of the administration costs under the current plan–which would jump to 75 percent.
SNAP helped more than 40 million people buy their groceries each month in the fiscal year 2023, and 40 percent of those who participate in SNAP are children.
Quote of the Month
“These would be the largest SNAP cuts in history, resulting in food being taken away from those who need it most,”
–Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress.
