By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Top officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency held at least six meetings this month with members of the Make America Healthy Again movement as agency head Lee Zeldin pledges to more closely align with the movement’s agenda, according to four people who attended the meetings.
The meetings show the growing influence of MAHA, a network of activists seeking vaccine restrictions and reduced chemical exposure, on the administration of President Donald Trump. The movement has already held sway at the Department of Health and Human Services, where MAHA-aligned Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has implemented MAHA priorities, including curbing childhood vaccines.
The movement has gained influence and access to policymakers because of its Trump administration backers, and represents growing interest by conservatives in some issues once mostly taken up in the U.S. by Democrats, such as restricting pesticides.
Zeldin and top EPA officials met with MAHA members to discuss pesticide and chemical exposure policy, according to the attendees, who described Zeldin and the agency officials as friendly and open to their concerns.
MAHA TRIED TO OUST EPA HEAD
The meetings come after MAHA led a petition to oust Zeldin from the agency, citing his approval of new pesticides, the appointment of former chemical industry lobbyists to top posts, and the weakening of some chemical standards. The petition garnered thousands of signatures before the meetings.
“What it seemed to us was that administrator Zeldin wasn’t doing his part,” said Kelly Ryerson, the co-executive director and co-founder of the MAHA-aligned group American Regeneration. “It had only been bad news coming out of the EPA.”
Ryerson said she participated in three meetings with the EPA this month after the petition gained traction.
EPA press secretary Brigit Hirsch confirmed that Zeldin and his political staff have met with MAHA activists.
“The Trump EPA wants to partner with the MAHA community and make sure everyone has a seat at the table,” she said.
While it is common for federal agencies to meet with various lobbying groups, it is unusual for them to publicly endorse such groups.
EPA ONCE DISMISSIVE, NOW FRIENDLY
Zeldin and nearly a dozen of his senior staff met with several MAHA activists on December 9, the day after he attended a holiday party hosted by the policy group MAHA Action, according to Reuters interviews with three attendees.
EPA attendees included the agency’s agriculture and water division heads, its general counsel and Zeldin’s deputy chief of staff, said Ryerson and Alexandra Muñoz, a toxicologist and MAHA activist who also attended.
Ryerson, Muñoz and other MAHA activists told Zeldin he should curb pesticide use, including the herbicide glyphosate, marketed by Bayer as Roundup and the subject of thousands of lawsuits alleging it causes cancer. They also expressed concern about some of the agency’s deregulatory actions, such as rolling back rulemaking aimed at protecting people from “forever chemicals” in drinking water.
Ryerson said she had two more meetings with the EPA later that week, one with the agency’s agriculture team and another with Douglas Troutman, the agency’s assistant administrator for its Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, which oversees pesticide regulations.
The officials were friendly and open to their ideas, Muñoz said. That was a change from an October meeting she had had with some of the same officials, when they had seemed dismissive and disinterested, she said.
Courtney Swan, another MAHA activist, said EPA staff she met with during the week of December 15 were receptive and curious about her concerns about chemical uses in the food supply.
“There seemed to be a bit of an olive branch there,” she said.
EPA ‘MAHA AGENDA’ UNDER WAY
Zeldin said on a December 10 MAHA Action webinar that the EPA is finalizing a “MAHA agenda” for the agency to address issues such as lead pipes, plastics and food waste.
He said the agency sought to incorporate feedback from MAHA and that anyone attending the webinar could reach out to participate in shaping the agenda.
The agency sidestepped an opportunity this year to take a tougher stance on pesticides when a multi-agency MAHA commission, led by Kennedy, in September released its strategy for improving childhood health.
An earlier report from the commission had pointed to pesticides as a potential health risk, which triggered criticism from the farm industry and led the White House to meet with farm and food lobby groups.
The final report was less critical of pesticides and noted that the EPA had confidence in its pesticide review process.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in WashingtonEditing by Rod Nickel)
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