“MAHA” Picks Up Momentum with the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission

On February 13, the Senate approved Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services and the White House shortly thereafter issued an Executive Order establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission. The opportunity to improve the health of Americans, particularly with respect to combatting chronic disease, and what steps the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would take under Mr. Kennedy’s leadership, were two areas of focus during Secretary Kennedy’s confirmation process. This Executive Order provides additional insight into how the Trump administration may approach its MAHA work and potential opportunities for stakeholder engagement as part of it.

Background

The Make America Healthy Again Commission (Commission) establishes a policy of the federal government to aggressively combat the critical health challenges facing Americans, including the rising rates of mental health disorders, obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases, with a particular emphasis on fighting childhood chronic disease. The Commission is to be chaired by the HHS Secretary, with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy serving as the Executive Director. The Executive Order envisions the Commission taking a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach and includes senior administration officials (or their designees) from across the federal government, including the Secretaries of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Commission’s members also include senior White House officials, including the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, the Director of the National Economic Council, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The Commission also includes the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other members of the Trump administration at the discretion of the Chair and the Executive Director. 

The initial mission of the Commission is to advise the President on how best to exercise his authority to address the childhood chronic disease crisis. Within 100 days of the Executive Order, the Commission is required to submit to the President the Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment, which among other actions, shall identify and evaluate existing Federal programs and funding intended to prevent and treat childhood health issues for their scope and effectiveness. Following this assessment, within 180 days of the Executive Order, the Commission shall submit to the President a Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy based on the findings from the assessment, which shall address the federal government’s response to the childhood chronic disease crisis, including by ending federal practices that exacerbate the health crisis or unsuccessfully attempt to address it, and by adding new solutions that will end childhood chronic disease.

Now What?

The Executive Order contemplates opportunities for potential public input by allowing the Chair of the Commission to hold public hearings, meetings, roundtables and similar events, and to receive expert input from leaders in public health and government accountability. Given the Commission’s ambitious charge, stakeholders should closely watch to see how the administration approaches public feedback and on what timeline, given the breadth and scope of the contemplated deliverables. For example, stakeholders should be watching to see if the administration opens a public docket and solicits input from the public, and if so, if it opens one docket spanning all of the departments and agencies included in the Commission or a series of separate dockets specific to individual departments and/or agencies. If the administration solicits public feedback in such a fashion, stakeholders will need to assess whether there will be sufficient time for both the submission of public comment and consideration of it within the Commission’s timelines for the assessment and strategy.

But What About Congress?

To date, Secretary Kennedy is the only HHS nominee requiring Senate confirmation to be confirmed since the start of the 119^th Congress. The Commission includes the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, the Director for the CDC and the Director of the NIH, but the nominees to serve in these roles (Dr. Marty Makary, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Dave Weldon, respectively) are still going through their confirmation processes in the Senate. The Commission includes an emphasis on mental health and mentions expanded treatment options and flexibility for health insurance coverage to provide benefits that support beneficial lifestyle changes and disease prevention; however, it does not list the Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) or the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as members of the Commission— positions also requiring Senate confirmation. Stakeholders should watch to see if these, or additional positions, are included as the work of the Commission gets underway given the Executive Order allows additional positions to be added.

HHS nominees are likely to navigate questions regarding the opportunities they see to improve the health of Americans as they go through their respective confirmation processes, and now those questions may also be specific to the Executive Order and the Commission’s charge. How these HHS nominees navigate such questioning may provide further insight into the administration’s MAHA work. There is also the practical question of how much any of these nominees will be able to shape the Commission’s initial work, given the 100-day timing of the required assessment and 180-day strategy deadline and the uncertainty of the timelines for their respective confirmation processes. Another open question is the nature of interplay between Congress and the administration’s work on MAHA-related fronts, as MAHA Caucuses have been established in both the House and Senate and the scope of the Commission spans multiple committees of jurisdiction in both Congressional chambers.

Next Steps

As the Trump administration’s work to advance its MAHA agenda and implementation of the Commission moves forward, stakeholders will be closely watching to see how it may impact agencies’ policies, programs and priorities for patients and public health, including FDA, CMS, NIH, CDC and SAMHSA, among others. In addition to the Commission’s work and consideration of the administration’s nominees by the Senate, the President’s upcoming State of the Union address and forthcoming Fiscal Year 2026 Budget submission may also provide additional insight into how the MAHA agenda is taking shape.