10. Department of Agriculture · Notable · Needs Congress

Reform the Dietary Guidelines process and codify the reforms in law

Attempted

Printed page 309 10. Department of Agriculture

“Minimally, the next Administration should reform the Dietary Guidelines. The USDA, with HHS, should develop a more transparent process that properly considers the underlying science and does not overstate its findings. … The USDA, working with lawmakers, should codify these reforms into law.”

What has happened

Apr 30, 2026 Attempted
The codification the Quote asks for passed one chamber. Section 4308 of H.R. 7567, which the House passed 224-200 on 2026-04-30, rewrites 7 U.S.C. 5341(a) to do exactly what the Quote describes: it applies Administrative Procedure Act notice-and-comment rulemaking to the development of each Dietary Guidelines report, replaces the "preponderance of the scientific and medical knowledge" test with a "significant scientific agreement … determined by evidence-based review" standard, requires 90 days' written notice to the four committees of jurisdiction with a justification before any update, establishes an Independent Advisory Board, and moves the cycle from five years to ten from the 2030 report. Under playbook §3b, passage by one chamber is `attempted`; the bill was received in the Senate on 2026-05-19 and has not been taken up.
- H.R. 7567, engrossed in the House 2026-04-30 — Sec. 4308 Dietary Guidelines: APA rulemaking, significant-scientific-agreement standard, congressional notification, Independent Advisory Board, ten-year cycle
  Primary Congress Apr 30, 2026

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

The administrative limb was checked and does not add an event: USDA and HHS released the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030 on 2026-01-07 (USDA release 0003.26) with claims of “restoring scientific integrity, accountability, and common sense”, but the release describes the content of the guidance, not a change to how the report is produced. It is recorded here rather than as Evidence. https://www.fna.usda.gov/newsroom/usda-0003.26
Freestanding versions of the same reform, S. 1129 and H.R. 2326 (Dietary Guidelines Reform Act of 2025), are in committee.
#800 (repeal the Dietary Guidelines) is the neighboring major ask and is not started; that item reads Sec. 4308 as entrenchment, which is the same reading from the other direction.

Action: other
Object: Dietary Guidelines process
ID: 801