20 hours ago
The MAHA wave
Driving the Day
IN THE STATES — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again campaign to combat chronic disease is reshaping state legislatures, with hundreds of bills introduced this year echoing his agenda in both red and blue states, POLITICO's Amanda Chu reports.
A POLITICO analysis of state legislatures found more than 130 pieces of legislation aimed at limiting access to ultraprocessed foods and improving nutrition, over 60 measures restricting the use of pesticides and other chemicals and more than 130 measures expanding vaccine exemptions or prohibiting mandates were introduced this year. Lawmakers also introduced dozens of bills to promote the use of psychedelics, authorize sales of raw milk and the antiparasitic drug ivermectin and ban the fluoridation of drinking water.
The advances seen in state capitols, often considered laboratories for federal rulemaking, offer a glimpse into how a Kennedy-run Department of Health and Human Services might turn MAHA priorities into regulation. The White House is set to release a final MAHA report, which will include recommendations to fight chronic disease.
Details: POLITICO tracked nearly 900 measures on MAHA-aligned subjects that were introduced in 50 states this year — a 45 percent increase from the previous year and measures introduced in 2023 among the four states that meet every two years. Measures ranged from banning the use of food dyes to limiting children's access to social media over mental health concerns to restricting the use of mRNA, the technology behind the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
The surge in state activity underscores the growing political clout of the MAHA base, which cuts across party lines, and offers MAHA supporters a chance to secure policy wins outside a White House navigating competing interests. Following intense pressure from agricultural lobbyists, the Trump administration assured farm groups earlier this summer that the final MAHA report would include no new policy around pesticide use despite linking the chemical to cancer in a May draft report.
Bipartisan appeal? Blue states New York and New Jersey led the country in the number of MAHA-aligned measures introduced this year, followed by Republican-led Texas. While some topics, like ending vaccine mandates, were predominantly backed by one party, a few themes had bipartisan traction: Roughly a third of measures to improve nutrition and restrict food additives were sponsored by at least one member of each party this year.
'We see so much state activity. … It's bipartisan. They're tapping into something that most Americans know intuitively. MAHA will persist when Kennedy is gone in the future,' said Joel White, a Republican health care strategist and founder of Horizon Government Affairs, a Washington lobbying firm.
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At the White House
PRASAD BACKSTORY — White House chief of staff Susie Wiles advocated to bring back the FDA's top vaccine regulator, Dr. Vinay Prasad, after he was pushed out following social media attacks from MAGA influencer Laura Loomer, POLITICO's David Lim, Dasha Burns and Tim Röhn report.
Wiles' decision to advocate on Prasad's behalf, as described to POLITICO by two senior administration officials granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details, came after pleas from both Prasad's boss, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They insisted that Prasad is part of Kennedy's broader Make America Healthy Again movement to combat chronic diseases and integral to the Trump coalition.
Loomer did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The FDA referred questions to the White House.
'Secretary Kennedy and the entire HHS team are doing a terrific job as they deliver on President Trump's mandate to Make America Healthy Again,' White House spokesperson Kush Desai said. 'Scores of prominent restaurant chains and food brands dropping artificial ingredients from our food supply and historic reforms at the FDA to fast-track lifesaving drugs and treatments prove that the entire HHS team is delivering for the American people.'
Background: President Donald Trump forced Prasad out of his FDA job less than two weeks earlier after the Cambridge, Massachusetts, pharmaceutical manufacturer Sarepta Therapeutics, joined by GOP allies and Loomer, sought his ouster. He abruptly returned last week.
Read the full story here.
DRUG STOCKPILE EO — President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday aimed at bolstering the domestic supply of drugs by ordering his health department to fill a drug-ingredient stockpile he established during his first term, POLITICO's Lauren Gardner reports.
The directive builds on the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve that Trump established in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when shortages of medical supplies and devices hampered the pandemic response. The U.S. relies largely on China, India and the European Union for APIs, particularly those that go into commonly used generic medicines like antibiotics and chemotherapies that are manufactured on low margins.
Details: The order directs the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response — the HHS agency that focuses on emergency readiness — to develop a list of 'approximately' 26 drugs considered critical to domestic health and security interests. It calls for an accounting of available funding that can be used to open the stockpile and to secure and maintain a six-month supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients needed to make the critical drugs.
In Congress
PRO MEDICAID CUTS — An influential group of Republicans has invited a key proponent of slashing Medicaid to brief congressional aides as the GOP mulls a potential second reconciliation bill, POLITICO's Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith Lee Hill report.
Brian Blase, president of the conservative think tank Paragon Health Institute, is set to address staff Thursday at a briefing on health care reform hosted by the Republican Study Committee, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
Blase was allied with conservative hard-liners earlier this year in pushing for significant cuts to Medicaid in the first GOP package. He was the initial author of a letter arguing for 'structural' changes to the program that Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and 19 other hard-right members later sent to their House Republican colleagues.
Details: An RSC spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday's briefing. But a person granted anonymity to discuss plans in advance said the meeting is set to cover enhanced tax credits for Affordable Care Act health insurance premiums, which are due to expire at the end of the year, as well as rules governing the percentage of Medicaid expenditures covered by the federal government and reimbursed to states.
Not unprecedented: The RSC, composed of 189 House conservatives, has been a key force pushing for a follow-on to President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that was signed into law last month. The group has invited several conservative experts to address staffers in recent weeks, though it has yet to endorse any specific health care policies for any forthcoming package.
Those staff-level meetings continue as House GOP leaders try to plot a way forward amid skepticism over whether another sprawling domestic policy bill is even possible, given the difficulties Republicans had coming to an agreement on the first bill.
Looking forward: It's still unclear what health topics a possible second package would address. Some House GOP factions are discussing further slashing Medicaid as well as possibly targeting Medicare funding.
AROUND THE AGENCIES
MAHA REPORT TIMELINE — The White House told several agricultural industry representatives to expect the latest Make America Healthy Again report to be publicly released in September, according to two people familiar with the conversation, POLITICO's Grace Yarrow reports.
Some farm groups were recently invited to the White House and given 20 to 30 minutes to view a hard copy of a draft strategy report, said the two people, who were granted anonymity to share private details.
The draft report that groups have seen is roughly 15 pages and has only 'light' mentions of pesticides, one of the two people said.
But given that officials plan to wait for weeks before publishing the report, anything could change. Farm groups are crossing their fingers that the MAHA Commission won't scale up plans last minute to crack down on pesticides.
'If the ag community felt like they'd had some success in mitigating some of the worst language, or even taking some of that stuff out, an extra month may not feel like an opportunity,' said one of the people. 'It actually might feel like a bigger risk, because if they're already comfortable with where it sits now, what does an extra month mean?'
'On the other side, the MAHA folks are going to be pushing for more aggressive policy solutions across the board,' the person added. 'Maybe it would have been better for it to just pop out as it is.'
Buckle up: Behind the scenes, the White House is taking extra time to review the policy recommendations to 'make sure it's not fucked up like last time,' as one person familiar with the process told our Dasha Burns, referencing the first error-riddled report from the MAHA Commission earlier this year.
An HHS official told our Playbook colleagues that 'the team at the White House and HHS is ensuring that whatever is in the report is the best possible product for the American people. If they need more time, they need more time.'
WHAT WE'RE READING
The New York Times' Roni Caryn Rabin and Irena Hwang report on the Trump administration halting research related to racial and socio-economic disparities.
