Reforms to sunscreen, breastfeeding, and milk are among the 128 policies listed in the Make America Healthy Again Commission‘s strategy report on improving children’s health released by the Trump administration on Tuesday.
The commission, composed of the Health and Human Services and Agriculture Departments, among others, published the long-awaited 20-page policy report and highlighted several high-profile initiatives during a press conference Tuesday afternoon, such as updating the childhood vaccine schedule and revamping dietary guidelines.
But there are several obscure policies in the report that could end up being significant goals for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term in office.
Many of the policies in the report are still in the early stages of development, and details about moving forward on some of the less prominent proposals in the strategy document are scant.
HHS Spokesperson Andrew Nixon told the Washington Examiner that his department is “proud to be advancing the Make America Healthy Again agenda in partnership with USDA, EPA, and other agencies.”
“From promoting breastfeeding, to strengthening food and nutrition standards, to improving product safety and public education, these efforts are all rooted in one goal: empowering Americans with healthier choices and better information,” Nixon said.
USDA did not immediately respond to a request for comments on policies within its purview.
Here are some of the more overlooked goals to watch for as the Trump administration executes the MAHA agenda.
Increasing breastfeeding
Within the top 10 of the policy reforms proposed in the MAHA Strategy report is the goal of increasing rates of breastfeeding for moms of infants, but it includes few details.
The report outlines that USDA and HHS are to increase breastfeeding whether through the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, known as WIC, “or other policies that support breastfeeding mothers.”
Breastfeeding has not been a main feature of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA movement, but it is a health fad with so-called “crunchy moms,” the nickname for those who seek all-natural and homeopathic alternatives to foods or common household products.
The “crunchy mom” phenomenon started in the mid-2010s, but the parenting style has gained traction through social media influencers in recent years. The line often blurs between “crunchy mom” and “MAHA mom,” or mothers in support of Kennedy’s aim to reduce the use of dyes in food and his other more well-known policies.
The policy document also outlines that the agencies will work “to develop policies to promote and ensure a safe supply of donor human milk.”
For those who do not breastfeed, the FDA has already been implementing plans to improve infant formula quality, which are also briefly highlighted in the strategy document.
The FDA announced in March an agency-wide effort, known as Operation Stork Speed, to improve testing capacities for infant formula, including for heavy metals. In May, the agency put out a request for information from stakeholders on improving the nutritional capacities of infant formula.
Sunscreen reform
The fringes of the MAHA movement have seen growing anti-sunscreen sentiment, but the MAHA Commission strategy report indicates that the FDA is going to update its standards for sunscreen products.
“FDA will promote innovation in the sunscreen market, and improve regulatory processes for over-the-counter sunscreen, which has fallen behind other countries,” says.
There may be some bipartisan support for getting these types of reforms through, should the FDA require help from Congress.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2023 highlighted on her social media feed that sunscreen standards in the U.S. had fallen behind some of the newest product developments in other countries that integrate SPF protectants into other skincare products like moisturizer.
Sunscreen is a regulated cosmetic product in South Korea, Japan, and the European Union, all of which are known among beauty influencers for having superior skincare regimens to those in the U.S.
Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times in 2023 it has been difficult to get through the administrative process of regulating sunscreens at the FDA and that officials in Congress were in the “preliminary, early process” of examining improving approval mechanisms for new sunscreen products.
At the time, Ocasio-Cortez said that the sunscreen issue had not yet “risen to a level of awareness in Congress” to motivate political change, but that she was optimistic about the “growing awareness among everyday people about this issue.”
The office of Ocasio-Cortez did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on this provision of the MAHA report.
Milk deregulation
There are three MAHA milk policies in the children’s health strategy report.
The first two involve school nutrition programs, allowing whole milk to be sold in schools alongside reduced-fat alternatives and removing mandatory reduced-fat requirements for federal nutrition programs. These initiatives fall in line with some of the reforms supported by members of Congress, such as Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.
But another provision of the report, saying that the Trump administration will, “remove barriers preventing small dairy operations from processing and selling their own milk products locally” could be a signal that the Trump administration is looking to expand access to raw milk.
Raw milk, or unpasteurized milk, has not gone through the pasteurization process, which involves heating milk to a particular temperature to kill potentially harmful bacteria.
MAHA advocates have gained traction in their argument that unpasteurized milk has substantial immune support benefits that outweigh potential bacterial infection risks, which they say can be mitigated with superior farm sanitation and modern veterinary health practices
Currently, the FDA does not permit the sale of raw milk across state lines, but in December, Kennedy tapped a prominent raw milk CEO Mark McAfee to advise the agency on milk policy.
USDA and FDA did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s question about pasteurization protocols.
“MAHA boxes” for food stamp recipients
Buried in the strategy document is a reference to so-called “MAHA boxes” as a plan to get “whole, healthy food, to SNAP participants.”
The details are far from apparent from the brief, 12-word sentence, but the concept of delivering in-kind food to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients is similar to a 2018 policy floated by USDA in 2018.
SNAP, colloquially known as food stamps, currently comes in the form of an Electronic Transfer Benefits, EBT, card that recipients can use at a grocery store much like a credit or debit card.
During the first Trump administration, USDA floated the idea of a so-called “America’s Harvest Box” plan. This would have replaced some of the EBT benefits per SNAP recipient with an in-kind transfer instead comprised of, “100 percent U.S. grown and produced food” including shelf-stable milk, canned fruits and meats, and cereal.
In 2018, the USDA estimated the program would save $129 billion over 10 years. That’s roughly $161 billion in 2025 dollars, due to inflation.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act spending package passed by Republicans this summer reduced SNAP funding by over $186 billion over the next 10 years.
Alcohol and substance abuse awareness campaign
The report briefly mentions a plan for the Surgeon General to “launch an education and awareness initiative on the impact of alcohol, controlled substances, vaping, and THC on children’s health.”
The MAHA movement as a whole has not tended to focus on alcohol or tobacco regulation, instead focusing on toxic substances in food products.
Alcohol and tobacco use among children and teenagers were notably absent from the initial MAHA Commission report in May. This first document from the Commission was intended as an examination of the literature on the current problems that the Trump administration ought to consider in the MAHA policymaking process.
Earlier this month, several authors of a report on alcohol’s health effects commissioned by HHS under former President Joe Biden told Vox that the findings were suppressed by Kennedy’s leadership at HHS.
The authors reportedly found that alcohol use is associated with increased mortality for seven different types of cancer and puts women at a higher risk than men. Other research corroborating these findings was highlighted by the Biden administration’s Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, in January.
HHS declined to answer why alcohol was not referenced in the initial MAHA Commission report published in May or further questions regarding the study that was reportedly suppressed.
