Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s agenda to overhaul the federal government’s approach to health policy is trickling down to the states.
In Louisiana, which was ranked the least healthy by the United Health Foundation in 2023, Republican state legislators passed legislation that bans dyes, artificial sweeteners and other ingredients from being served in school foods. The state also passed legislation to allow Ivermectin, a medication typically used for parasitic infections, to be distributed as an over-the-counter drug.
These are initiatives Kennedy has been driving on the federal level.
“He’s been an inspiration to a lot of legislators, and I think just citizens, really to think more about what you actually put in your body, what you eat, what medications you take, what vaccines,” Derek Babcock, Louisiana Republican Party chair, told NOTUS.
“I know there’s been some [bills] over the years, but it certainly hasn’t been to this extent, which I don’t think is a bad thing today,” Babcock continued about state-level initiatives. “I’m glad to see it myself.”
Some Republicans believe Kennedy’s messaging has made public health-related measures a top priority of the state.
“I don’t think Louisiana has ever really, truly prioritized health,” Louisiana state Sen. Patrick McMath, who sponsored the bill limiting which ingredients can be used in school lunches, told NOTUS. “I don’t think a lot of states have ever done that. … California sort of was on this island with regards to prohibiting certain ingredients in foods for a very long time. And I think the country has woken up to this issue, thanks to the advocacy of Secretary Kennedy.”
Kennedy-inspired legislation and orders have started to sprout across the country. Utah passed a law to ban fluoride in the state’s public water systems. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order ending the use of artificial dyes in meals that state agencies pay for. The United States Department of Agriculture approved Indiana’s ban to prevent soda and candy from purchase through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
As for California’s food industry regulations, Kennedy’s priorities do overlap with some of what Democrats have done in the state. But they have little else in common with the rest of his agenda.
Kennedy has a long history of casting doubt on the scientific process the nation’s public health infrastructure is built on. Since being appointed to his office, he has signaled a desire to move away from having fluoride in water, long considered a public-health achievement credited with benefits for children and adults. He has limited infectious disease research and prompted concern that the Trump administration’s measures will chill more research. And the long-time vaccine skeptic recently replaced members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with vaccine skeptics.
The Department of Health and Human Sciences did not respond to a request for comment about where states like Louisiana fit into his MAHA platform. But last month, Kennedy attended a ceremony in Baton Rouge with Gov. Jeff Landry, where Landry signed a couple of pieces of legislation billed as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative.
“We have a chronic disease epidemic in this country now, and it’s unlike anything that humanity has ever faced,” Kennedy said during the ceremony. “Louisiana is the 49th state in terms of poor health, and Gov. Landry wants to change that. I’m confident that this bill is gonna do just that.”
Kennedy and Landry’s relationship goes back to at least 2021, when Landry, who served as attorney general at the time, invited Kennedy to testify in front of the state legislature about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for K-12 students. Landry’s office did not respond to questions about their working relationship and the role Kennedy played in the state’s recent legislative session.
But other Republicans see a connection between Kennedy’s visible role at the federal level and momentum on the state level.
“We’ve carried some of the bills that we saw this year in the past, and they failed, whereas this year they got more traction,” Republican state Rep. Beryl Amedee told NOTUS. “I think it’s because with the messaging changing at the national level, more legislators are willing to consider certain ideas that they maybe weren’t willing to consider before.”
As an example, Amedee pointed to the state passing Ivermectin legislation, after a failed effort to bring it to the floor in last year’s legislative session.
While vaccine skeptics have claimed that Ivermectin can be used to treat cancer and COVID-19, there’s no evidence to support it as a treatment for either. She credited Kennedy’s messaging on Ivermectin, which he previously suggested could be a cure to COVID-19, as the reason why more legislators were open to it this time around.
While some Republicans and advocates say Kennedy has played a key role in state legislators’ health push, others have been more hesitant to give him all the credit.
Jill Hines, co-director of Health Freedom Louisiana, a right-wing health advocacy group, praised Kennedy’s work but said she does not think he’s solely responsible for changes on the local level.
Both the Louisiana Medical Freedom Act, which protects people’s right to reject medical interventions, and legislation to scale back fluoride in public drinking water failed to advance through the legislature. Hines says that both of these bills “should have been no-brainers” to pass if Kennedy had “tremendous influence.”
“I don’t want to give him the credit for the work that we’ve been doing here in the state. And also, we also left some really important bills on the floor that didn’t get passed here, regardless of the impact of Secretary Kennedy’s influence in the legislature,” Hines said.
Louisiana state Sen. Mike Fesi, the primary sponsor on the state’s bill on Ivermectin that became law, told NOTUS that much of the health legislation that passed this session was “already in progress” before Kennedy became the health secretary.
“I would say it [Kennedy’s agenda] helps, but it wasn’t the main proponent,” Fesi said.
And while state Senate Democrats unanimously supported the bill restricting ingredients in school food, some seem to still be skeptical of Kennedy’s agenda.
“I’m supportive of a portion of that agenda, and that portion is … with the kids and trying to make sure they eat healthy,” state Sen. W. Jay Luneau, a Democrat who serves on the state’s health and welfare committee, told NOTUS. “But at the same time, we put forth these programs like that to help kids learn to eat more healthy and to provide more healthy foods, and then we don’t put the money up to pay for it. And that didn’t make a lot of sense to me.”