After looking at it, the general has given it very little thought as many of the policy proposals are unserious in nature – at best. Privatizing NOAA is not something that the Congressman is in support of nor will he ever be.
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Department of Agriculture
Eliminate or Reform the Dietary Guidelines. The USDA, in collaboration with HHS, publishes the Dietary Guidelines every five years.’ For more than 40 years, the federal government has been releasing Dietary Guidelines,”° and during this time, there has been constant controversy due to questionable recommendations and claims regarding the politicization of the process.
In the 2015 Dietary Guidelines process, the influential Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee veered off mission and attempted to persuade the USDA and HHS to adopt nutritional advice that focused not just on human health, but the health of the planet.’”’ Issues such as climate change and sustainability infiltrated the process. Fortunately, the 2020 process did not get diverted in this manner. However, the Dietary Guidelines remain a potential tool to influence dietary choices to achieve objectives unrelated to the nutritional and dietary well-being of Americans.
There is no shortage of private sector dietary advice for the public, and nutrition and dietary choices are best left to individuals to address their personal needs. This includes working with their own health professionals. As it is, there is constantly changing advice provided by the government, with insufficient qualifications on the advice, oversimplification to the point of miscommunicating important points, questionable use of science, and potential political influence.
The Dietary Guidelines have a major impact because they not only can influence how private health providers offer nutritional advice, but they also inform federal programs. School meals are required to be consistent with the guidelines.’”*
The next Administration should:
• Work with lawmakers to repeal the Dietary Guidelines. The USDA should help lead an effort to repeal the Dietary Guidelines.
• 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. It should also ensure that the Dietary Guidelines focus on nutritional issues and do not veer off-mission by focusing on unrelated issues, such as the environment, that have nothing to do with nutritional advice. In fact, if environmental concerns supersede or water down recommendations for human nutritional advice, the public would be receiving misleading health information. The USDA, working with lawmakers, should codify these reforms into law.
ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES
Based on the recommended reforms identified as ideal solutions, the USDA would look different in many respects. One of the biggest changes would be aUSDA that is not focused on welfare, given that means-tested welfare programs would