“To amend the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 to improve the dietary guidelines, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the process for establishing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans under the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990 by (1) extending the required issuance interval to at least every 10 years (from every five years); (2) requiring compliance with notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures under 5 U.S.C. 553; and (3) specifying new criteria for the guidelines, including that they be based on significant scientific agreement determined through evidence-based review (as defined to require systematic collection, analysis, and rating of scientific evidence), current at issuance, derived from questions developed by an independent advisory board, targeted at high-priority health areas, aligned with National Academies standards for nutritional adequacy, relevant to common chronic diseases, and affordable, available, and accessible. The section further (4) authorizes the Secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to issue guidelines more frequently based on updated dietary reference intakes; (5) requires the Secretaries to notify relevant congressional committees at least 90 days prior to any update, with justification; (6) directs establishment of an independent advisory board of up to eight nutrition or food science experts (four appointed by the Secretaries including two non-federal employees, and one each by the top minority members of four specified committees) to develop a list of scientific questions within one year of notification (with a 6/8 quorum requirement and automatic termination thereafter); (7) requires coordination with the Joint United States-Canada Dietary Reference Intake Working Group, which is encouraged to conduct at least one update annually; and (8) excludes from the guidelines topics unrelated to dietary guidance (e.g., taxation, social welfare policies, or food production practices), as determined by the Secretaries in consultation with the advisory board.