The Shutdown Deal Is Killing Food Safety Rules
After intense lobbying and major campaign donations, the emergency spending bill intended to end the federal government shutdown is including language abolishing rules designed to prevent food contamination and foodborne illnesses at farms and restaurants.
The National Restaurant Association, a large food service trade association that lobbied for loosening food safety rules, donated $5,000 to the 2024 election efforts of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), one of seven Democrats who voted for the emergency funding bill. (Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
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.
The Senate’s gutting of these rules coincides with a huge increase in hospitalizations and deaths from foodborne illnesses. The changes follow restaurant and food industry lobbyists spending more than $13 million in 2025 lobbying the White House, Congress, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other regulators on food-tracking issues and other matters, disclosures show.
Two of these lobbying groups pressing for the changes delivered more than $750,000 to both parties’ congressional candidates and more than $145,000 to the two parties’ congressional election committees in the last election. That includes $17,000 combined to three of the seven Democratic senators who sided with Republicans to pass the funding bill.
One of the rules being targeted would institute new record-keeping standards for food companies so federal agencies can more easily identify the origin point of any “foodborne illness outbreaks,” among other potential safety risks.
A line in the funding package withholds funding for implementing these standards until 2028, mirroring a recent extension proposed by the Trump administration’s food regulators and supported by industry groups.
The funding bill also took aim at rules designed to “minimize the risk of serious adverse health consequences or death from consumption of contaminated produce” by establishing procedures to “provide reasonable assurances that the produce is not adulterated.”
Industry groups, including the National Restaurant Association, the National Grocers Association, and the International Foodservice Distributors Association, have spent millions lobbying federal regulators on these matters this year.
The National Restaurant Association gave $85,000 this past election cycle to political action committees affiliated with Senate and House Republican leadership, along with tens of thousands of dollars to individual candidates.
The government funding bill passed the Senate on November 10 with the help of seven Senate Democrats. The bill’s passage comes after widespread Democratic election wins, prompting party infighting over the fact that it does not extend pandemic-era health care subsidies.
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-NV), 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-IL), who also sided with Republicans.
Making Food Safety Opaque Again
Last year saw a doubling of Americans who were hospitalized or killed by contaminated food outbreaks, according to data compiled by the US Public Interest Research Group. In all, there are now “10 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually in the United States (and) these illnesses result in about 53,300 hospitalizations and over 900 deaths,” according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office.
Despite that, the new funding bill blocks federal rules designed to trace sources of outbreaks and to prevent contamination of produce. One provision in the legislation states that no funds “may be used to administer or enforce the ‘Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods,’ published on Nov. 21, 2022.”
Originally proposed by the first Trump administration during the pandemic when COVID-19 posed severe risks of contaminating food systems, the Food and Drug Administration’s traceability rule aimed to establish new record-keeping standards for companies to track their food products across the supply chain. Those records could help regulators identify the point of origin in the event of a major disease outbreak or food contamination event. The rule applied to produce, seafood, and certain dairy products, such as cheese, and exempted small businesses from the rule.
A host of industry groups opposed the new traceability standards in the public comments submitted to the FDA.
The National Restaurant Association argued in a comment in 2021 that the proposed rule was “unworkable, making compliance impossible, given the complex nature of the industry’s supply chains and business operations, as well as the continuing economic hardships to the industry from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The National Grocers Association also opposed the proposed rule, claiming that the FDA “may have exceeded its authority” and that the rule would be “burdensome” for its members. The National Fisheries Institute said that improving food-tracking technologies “is a business benefit and is not necessary for food safety.”
The United Egg Producers, the main trade association for major egg producers such as Cal-Maine, also submitted a comment raising related concerns about the standards.
After delays, the Biden administration finalized the rule in 2023.
Soon after Trump took office this year and installed business-friendly regulators in key positions, agriculture interests began lobbying on the matter.
The National Restaurant Association spent nearly $2.5 million in 2025 lobbying federal lawmakers on issues including the FDA traceability rule.
The International Foodservice Distributors Association has spent more than $600,000 this year lobbying federal lawmakers on the traceability rule, among other matters.
In August, the FDA proposed a rule to delay the implementation of the traceability standards until July 2028.
The line inserted on page 154 of the new funding package contains identical language as the federal rule and would enshrine it into law.
Wine Inspections and Big Chip Handouts
The traceability standard isn’t the only food safety rule targeted by the shutdown deal.
On page 133 of the funding package, a line states that none of the funds made available by the bill can be used to enforce a 2015 FDA rule that required stricter inspections for wine grapes, hops, almonds, and certain other crops. The rule also established water-quality standards for watering produce and hygienic practices for farmworkers to limit produce contamination.
Additionally, the funding bill slashes funds for the FDA to develop or administer new regulations for “long-term population-wide sodium reduction actions until an assessment is completed on the impact of the short-term sodium reduction targets.”
High-sodium food products are often considered “ultra-processed foods.” According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, these foods are associated with a higher risk of heart disease.
Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again report, released by the White House in May 2025, promoted food guidelines “that emphasize unprocessed foods while strictly limiting high-fat, high-sugar, and high-sodium processed items.”