The GOP Is Choosing Pesticides Over the MAHA Moms
RFK Jr.’s MAHA coalition is already made up of unlikely GOP allies, from anti-Big Food activists to regenerative farmers. The issue of pesticides threatens to come between the movement and its Republican backers.
Last month a House committee voted along party lines on a seemingly run-of-the-mill interior appropriations bill, allocating funds for several favored Republican policies—expanding funding for domestic mining and offshore fossil fuel production, for instance—and curbing spending on more liberal causes, such as climate and diversity. But tucked away on page 196 of the more than 200-page bill were 10 little lines of text that have both environmental advocates and the Donald Trump-backing “Make America Healthy Again” coalition readying for a fight.
To anyone outside the Beltway, the buried bit of Washington-speak might not look like much: The provision, known as Section 453, appears to limit the government’s ability to mandate or approve labeling changes on chemical pesticides. “It seems so innocuous,” says Geoff Horsfield, policy director at the not-for-profit Environmental Working Group, which opposes the rider. “I think that’s what the pesticide manufacturers are trying to portray this as.”