Making America Healthy Again

Even as modern medicine continues to advance, Americans are getting sicker and chronic diseases are surging across our country. It’s time for the federal government to prioritize people’s health over big corporations and ensure access to healthy foods.

That’s why I introduced four new bills in the sixth pillar of my Blueprint for a Better America: Making America Healthy Again. These bills will make food healthier, increase transparency and accountability, and promote healthy living and learning:

• The Know What’s on the Tray Act to require schools to publish information about each menu item on the school website so parents can know what is in their children’s school meals, how it was produced, and whether the item is locally sourced or produced on a family farm.
• The Safe Baby Formula Act to ban all toxic heavy metals from baby formula and require the Food and Drug Administration to study the effects of metals in formula.
• The Healthy Commissaries, Healthy Families Act to require the Department of Defense to partner with local farmers and expand healthy food options in military commissaries — the department-run stores for service members, retirees, and their families.
• The Healthy Recess for Learning Act to encourage elementary and middle schools to expand recess to at least 60 minutes a day.

It’s time we enact serious reforms to give Americans transparency and access to real, healthy food. Whether it's a cafeteria, a commissary, or a grocery store, all of our communities deserve policies that put people’s well-being first and make it easier to raise healthy families.

These bills build on other work I’ve done to make America healthier and lower the cost of health care:

• Introducing the Great American Healthcare Plan to expand access to tax-free health savings accounts (HSAs) and allow people to use these accounts to pay for nutritious food, vitamins, gym memberships, and other healthy lifestyle choices.
• Helping pass a Farm Bill amendment to preserve states’ ability to hold pesticide makers accountable for harmful products.
• Voting in support of a Farm Bill amendment to prevent SNAP benefits from being used to purchase sugary sodas.
• Introducing the Tech Wellness for Young Men Act and the Tech Wellness for Men Act to study how screen time and video game use may affect the mental health and well-being of boys and young men.

Michigan families deserve a government that puts their health first. To learn more about my work to Make America Healthy Again, Make Health Care Affordable Again and my whole Blueprint for a Better America, visit barrett.house.gov/reform.