The Make America Healthy Again faction of the Republican Party got its first major policy win in Congress on Thursday.
MAHA successfully stripped a provision from the farm bill that would have blocked states and courts from penalizing pesticide companies that do not include health concerns on their labels beyond those recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency. Critics said the provision was a giveaway to pesticide companies and would have prevented lawsuits over certain cancers and other diseases caused by the products.
Overall, the provision was stripped in a 280-142 vote. 73 Republicans and 207 Democrats voted for the amendment, which was offered by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). Meanwhile, 135 Republicans and 6 Democrats opposed the measure. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans, also voted against.
“Huge win for states rights and MAHA,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote in a post on X. “The special provisions for pesticides (and herbicides like glyphosate) was just stripped from the farm bill by an overwhelming majority!”
Prior to the vote on the amendment, Luna threatened that she and other Republican holdouts would “slaughter” the farm bill if the pesticide provisions were not stripped from the legislation.
“Thank you thank you to everyone — including the #MAHA activists who raised hell and said loud and clear: we cannot support a Farm Bill that puts chemical company profits over the health of Americans!” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) wrote on X.
While Democrats and some Republicans supported this amendment, other farm bill advocates were not happy with the changes. Luna called the lawmakers opposing her amendment “sick freaks.”
“I have now been accosted by two Republican members of Congress for trying to remove pesticide liability protections,” Luna wrote on X. “Both of which claim to be “God-fearing” Christians, but are shilling for cancer causing pesticide companies. Yikes.”
House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) argued against the pesticide reform in the House Rules Committee meeting, saying it is “critical for securing access to the well-regulated pesticide tools,” as Republicans have been honing in on food affordability ahead of November’s election.
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Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said earlier this week that he supported stripping out the provision because constituents in Texas are “raising that issue and saying that states ought to have the ability to manage and deal with that.”
While this amendment was a success for MAHA, other amendments for the movement did not pass, including prohibiting the purchase of soda with SNAP and ending mandatory electronic identification tags in cattle.