Shutdown Deal Kills Food Safety Rules [View all]

National Politics
Nov 11, 2025
Freddy Brewster
Luke Goldstein

Shutdown Deal Kills Food Safety Rules
After lobbyists spent big on the Trump administration and Democratic defectors, the government funding bill cut food-contamination rules and limited ultraprocessed-food research.

Amid a lobbying blitz and a flood of campaign cash, senators inserted language into this week’s emergency spending bill that eliminates rules designed to prevent food contamination and foodborne illnesses at farms and restaurants, according to legislative text reviewed by The Lever.

The bill would also limit the development of rules to regulate ultra-processed foods, despite such foods being derided by the “Make America Healthy Again Movement,” championed by President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

*snip*

The National Restaurant Association, “the largest food service trade association in the world” that lobbied on the food-tracking issues, donated $10,000 to the 2024 election of Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), one of the seven Democrats who caved on the shutdown. The group gave another $5,000 to the 2024 election efforts of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who also voted for the funding bill.

Additionally, the National Grocers Association, a grocery and retail industry group that lobbied on food-tracking issues, donated $1,000 each to Kaine and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who also sided with Republicans.

More at https://www.levernews.com/shutdown-deal-kills-food-safety-rules

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Rosen, Kaine, Durbin... *sigh

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