MAHA scores on farm bill but loses ally for surgeon general
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The "Make America Healthy Again" movement notched a big win on pesticide regulation during Thursday's debate on a House farm bill, only to see the White House pull the nomination of a favored influencer for surgeon general hours later.
Why it matters: The events showed how the movement continues to have clout on matters related to the food supply, but can be a political liability when it comes to vaccines and other public health matters.
Driving the news: MAHA-aligned House Republicans joined with Democrats on Thursday to remove language in the House farm bill that critics said would have protected pesticide manufacturers, in a 280-142 vote.
- The bill language would have prevented states and courts from "failure-to-warn" lawsuits about health effects of pesticides beyond those recognized by the EPA.
- The vote came as the Supreme Court reviews a case in which Bayer is trying to limit lawsuits in state courts claiming that its weedkiller Roundup causes cancer.
- "Stripping pesticide liability language out of the farm bill proves that grassroots pressure can break through even the most entrenched corporate influence," Vani Hari, a top MAHA influencer who blogs as the "Food Babe," told Axios in an email.
Yes, but: Soon after, the White House pulled the stalled nomination of nutrition influencer Casey Means for surgeon general and replaced her with Nicole Saphier of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a former Fox News medical contributor.
- Means' nomination languished after some Republicans on the Senate health committee expressed skepticism over her answers to whether she would encourage vaccinations against measles.
- Means, an ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tried to avoid being pinned down on how she would handle vaccine messaging as the nation's top doctor. She also didn't criticize an executive order President Trump issued that boosted the herbicide glyphosate.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Means would continue to carry the MAHA flag on issues like childhood disease and praised Saphier's communication skills, saying she would make complicated health issues more understandable.
- Saphier wrote the book Make America Healthy Again, published in 2020, which laid out a case for a prevention-first approach to health care with a focus on the importance of individual choices.
- In 2022, she promoted the false claim that the Centers for Disease Control would soon mandate that schoolchildren get COVID-19 vaccines, which quickly went viral, the Washington Post reported.
What's ahead: The Senate still has to take up the farm bill. And the Senate health committee still has to hold hearings on Saphier's nomination.
- Senate Agriculture Committee chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) indicated Thursday he would release farm bill text within weeks.
