President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Food and Drug Administration told senators at his confirmation hearing Thursday that he plans to address chemicals in food and is looking at ways to make school meals healthier.
In books and public appearances, Martin Makary has criticized pesticide use, ultraprocessed foods and food chemicals. Consumer groups and those in the Make America Healthy Again movement have said his views are in line with those of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but that Makary could take a more moderate approach.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Makary reiterated his belief that food chemicals are making kids sick.
“We are drugging our nation’s children at scale,” Makary said. “We have to reassess what we are doing because we are not on a good path right now.”
In response to a question from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., about his stance on using the Generally Recognized As Safe process for food ingredients, Makary said no one has meaningfully addressed the role of foods in chronic diseases among children and overall health.
That was until Kennedy and the MAHA movement was adopted by Trump to address the root cause of diseases, he said.
“Food has a part of it,” Makary said. “Food has a big part of it.”
He specifically targeted food chemicals that the industry “insists” are safe, but that research has shown can cause negative outcomes. If confirmed to lead FDA, Makary committed to examine the safety of these chemicals.
Tuberville also pressed Makary on his opinion of seed oils. Kennedy and others in the MAHA movement have frequently criticized seed oils as a contributing factor in chronic health diseases.
Makary said he could not point to one ingredient in the food supply that is making children sick, but thinks that seed oil research should be consolidated.
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“I think we have to look at the totality of every single thing, in school lunch programs, in the diet of our nation’s children,” Makary said. “When we are using tax dollars to make purchases of foods that we know make our nation’s children sick, we have to re-examine how we spend those tax dollars.”
Specifically, Makary said he would like to work on a school lunch program for some districts on a pilot basis that would transition to healthier foods. He said some schools want to do this, but either don’t know how or do not have the funds to support it.
Already, Makary said he’s discussing this option with members of the Trump administration and Jay Bhattacharya, who is nominated to lead the National Institutes of Health.
USDA is ultimately responsible for setting nutrition standards for school meal programs. Last year, the Biden administration finalized a rule that updated standards to better fit with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
If confirmed, Makary would sit on the newly formed MAHA Commission with Kennedy and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. The panel is intended to study the root causes of chronic diseases and identify potential threats like food chemicals.
Shortly after her swearing-in, Rollins also expressed openness to Kennedy and MAHA input on USDA nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. She also sent a letter to states encouraging them to participate in pilot programs to reform SNAP and laid out a vision for dietary policy to align with science, not politics.
Other senators on the HELP Committee pressed Makary on recent staffing cuts to the agency made by the Department of Government Efficiency. FDA’s Deputy Commissioner of the Human Foods Program, Jim Jones, abruptly resigned last month in response to 89 layoffs in the foods program.
It’s not clear which positions were cut, and how many people have been rehired in the weeks since, but some employees from the food safety and food chemical review programs were at least initially terminated. The Trump administration has also advised agencies to ready for even steeper cuts through a Reduction in Force.
Makary said he welcomes input from any organization, Congress and DOGE, but assured lawmakers he would review the personnel changes made.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., specifically raised concerns about how cuts may have impacted food inspections. He also cited existing staffing shortages and questioned how Makary would retain inspectors, particularly if presented with a tighter budget.
A 2022 report from the Reagan-Udall Foundation found that the agency’s Human Foods Program is already under-resourced and under-staffed. Personnel levels for the food safety program in particular have remained relatively flat since 1978 despite increased responsibilities, according to the report.
Consumer groups have also noted that staffing cuts could make it challenging for Makary to take meaningful action on issues like food safety and food chemical reviews.
Makary noted that he was not responsible for these cuts, since he was not in the agency at the time they were executed. Still, he committed to completing a full and ongoing staffing assessment that ensures scientists and food inspectors have enough resources to complete their jobs.
Specifically, he said he’d assess terminations among employees addressing the bird flu and within the Human Foods Program.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also asked about state and local food safety inspection funding. States and local departments complete about 90% of produce inspections, as well as many animal food and food manufacturer inspections on behalf of FDA. It’s generally more cost-effective for states to complete these inspections rather than federal inspectors.
However, under the last administration, FDA began alerting states that they could start receiving fewer funds for inspections. Historically, the agency has had about $34 million in excess funds to send to states on top of what's been appropriated. However, the agency does not anticipate having these carry-over funds in the coming years due to FDA-wide budget constraints.
The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has pushed Congress to increase appropriations for FDA and include a line item ensuring states receive a set amount of funds for inspections.
Makary did not commit to specific action on this issue, but assured Murkowski that he would look into it.
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