The Government Shutdown Deal Is Endangering Food Safety
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.
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