MAHA Advocates Urge Trump To Block Immunity For Pesticide And Chemical Manufacturers

Authored by Jeff Louderbeck via The Epoch Times,

As anticipation builds about the upcoming Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission Report’s release, 241 MAHA advocates sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to prevent the House of Representatives from limiting regulation for pesticides and “forever chemicals” in its environmental appropriations bill.

“We ask you to take action to make sure any protections for pesticides are stricken from this Appropriations bill,” the letter says, or risk losing Republican backing.

The letter also expressed opposition to liability shields for pesticide companies.

Every year, more than 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides are used on U.S. farmland, including dozens of chemicals banned in other developed nations, the letter states.

“These toxic substances are present in our food, air, soil, and water, and are increasingly in our children’s bodies, negatively impacting normal brain development and hormonal function,” the letter explains.

“Extensive peer-reviewed research has linked glyphosate to infertility, increased reproductive risks, and 6 of the top 10 most common cancers in the [United States]. At the same time, atrazine is a known endocrine disruptor affecting sexual development, and paraquat has been linked to Parkinson’s and neurological and respiratory diseases.”

Signers of the letter highlighted provisions in the Fiscal Year 2026 House Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill—Sections 453 and 507 —which they claim create broad product-liability protections for domestic and foreign pesticide and chemical manufacturers “by refusing to fund the critical, legally required scientific safety assessments needed to update labels across more than 57,000 synthetic chemicals.”

“Numerous pesticides that fall under Section 453 are chemicals that are already banned in multiple other developed nations. Despite a massive outcry from citizens, the House Appropriations committee passed the spending bill last month with Section 453 and Section 507 intact,” the letter states.

MAHA advocates also expressed concern about Section 507 because “it prohibits the EPA from finalizing risk assessments for PFOA and PFOS forever chemicals found in biosolids spread on farmer’s fields and eliminates funding for community health monitoring, new research, and the cleanup of more than 70 million acres of U.S. 2 farmland contaminated with PFAS from the application of biosolids.”

“Mr. President, creating broad liability protections for pesticides is a losing issue for your party and your coalition, and may well cost you the House majority in the midterms,” the letter said.

MAHA Action CEO Tony Lyons said in a July 24 X post that stopping Section 453 should be MAHA’s top priority right now.

“There couldn’t be anything that is more important to MAHA than making sure that we don’t have pesticide liability protection for big corporations,” Lyons wrote.

“Nobody should want their children to be exposed to them. Nobody should wanna be exposed to them themselves. What’s happening now looks a lot like what happened in 1986 with the vaccine liability protection for these big companies.”

The letter stated that some Republicans “talk MAHA” on camera while silently advancing policies that undercut the movement.

“Republicans must do more than ride the wave of MAHA’s high polling,” David Murphy, founder of United We Eat, a major fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign, said in a press release.

“President Trump must stand firm and follow through with real policy that protects American health, including opposing chemical liability shields and the Eats Act that put our children at risk and trample Americans’ constitutional right to sue,” Murphy added.

The letter pointed to a 2024 poll of Iowa Republicans by Accountable Iowa that found efforts to pass cancer lawsuit liability bills “could significantly cost Republicans in state and federal elections in 2026.”

The proposed legislation was not passed in Iowa.

According to the poll, 87 percent of registered Republicans oppose giving chemical companies like Bayer-Monsanto immunity from lawsuits, while 94 percent agreed it is “very concerning” that the EPA relies on industry-funded data to administer safety studies.

“If Republicans want to retain MAHA support long-term, they need to stop siding with agrochemical companies and take leadership on these issues,” Charles Eisenstein, who served as Kennedy’s chief speechwriter during the Health and Human Services Secretary’s presidential campaign, said.

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission “is on track to submit its Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy report to the President on August 12th,” Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, told The Epoch Times in an email on Aug. 11.

“The report will be unveiled to the public shortly thereafter as we coordinate the schedules of the President and the various cabinet members who are a part of the commission.”

The MAHA Commission’s first report was released in May. It mostly details issues related to the health of Americans and attributes the rise of chronic diseases among children to a diet focused on ultraprocessed foods, exposure to chemicals, a lack of physical activity, and the over-prescription of medications.

When Trump established the commission not long after beginning his second term, the panel was tasked to submit its first report to the president within 100 days and present him with a strategy on how to address chronic diseases, including obesity, within 180 days.

That deadline was Aug. 12.

The White House has not commented on the MAHA advocates’ letter as of this article’s publication time.