The Secretary of Health and Human Services traveled to Oklahoma and Louisiana to endorse legislative efforts inspired by his Make America Healthy Again movement.
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The Secretary of Health and Human Services traveled to Oklahoma and Louisiana to endorse legislative efforts inspired by his Make America Healthy Again movement.
July 7, 2025
July 7, 2025 – While Washington, D.C. was consumed by the push to pass President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill over the last two weeks, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continued to encourage and endorse efforts inspired by his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement in statehouses around the country.
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Kennedy traveled to Oklahoma for an event where Republican governor Kevin Stitt signed a waiver eliminating soda and candy from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and an executive order directing state agencies to take artificial food dyes out of meals.
In Louisiana, Governor Jeff Landry signed a similar SNAP waiver and a piece of legislation dubbed the “MAHA Bill” that goes much further. In addition to restricting food dyes in school meals and requiring QR-code labeling for certain additives, the bill mandates restaurants include disclaimers on their menus or in another clearly visible location if they cook with canola, soybean, corn, sunflower, or other seed oils.
That provision is likely to stoke controversy because the scientific consensus around seed oils is that they are not universally harmful (and in some cases are healthier than animal-based options), but that consensus is now at odds with the actions and rhetoric of the federal government’s top health official.
Kennedy’s travel follows earlier trips to West Virginia, Utah, Arizona, and other states to support similar bills. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has partnered with him to get soda and other unhealthy foods out of SNAP, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is now maintaining a map showing where waivers have been approved.
On Instagram on July 4, Kennedy said “a new American revolution” is underway to combat chronic disease. “We’ve just gotten started here at HHS to rebuild a food and medical system that are worthy of your trust,” he said. “I’m inviting you to join the revolution too by making healthy choices for you and your family.”
However, on the same day, many advocacy groups criticized the administration and Republicans in Congress for making it much harder for low-income Americans to do just that, by reducing access to SNAP benefits and eliminating SNAP-Ed.
“There is overwhelming evidence that demonstrates these legislative and budgetary actions will have harmful consequences to public health and none of these actions gets us closer to improving the health and nutrition security of Americans, which the Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture share as common goals,” Wylecia Wiggs Harris, Chief Executive Officer of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, said in a statement in response to the signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill. (Link to this post.)
July 30, 2025
From Oklahoma to D.C., a food activist works to ensure that communities can protect their food systems and their future.
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