Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the HHS, wants to make sugary drinks ineligible for SNAP benefits.
The move is part of Kennedy Jr.'s quest to improve public health, which includes eating better instead of using GLP-1 drugs, officially known as glucagon-like peptide-1, for weight loss and diabetes.
Now, his eyes are set on Big Soda, specifically banning their sugary drinks (known as "sugar sweetened beverages") from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, that's used for buying groceries by needy families, reported the Wall Street Journal.
"It's nonsensical for U.S. taxpayers to spend tens of billions of dollars subsidizing junk that harms the health of low-income Americans," Kennedy wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
Companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper have sent lobbyists to Capitol Hill to speak their case.
They argued that zero-sugar drinks and clear calorie labels help consumers make healthier choices.
Coca-Cola's lobbying team is trying to influence policymakers to block change.
Big Soda offers options to sugary drinks that are low and no-sugar alternatives such as electrolyte drinks, seltzers, bottled waters and teas.
They make up 60% of nonalcoholic packaged and fountain drinks sold in the country by volume, the American Beverage Association reports.
Congress would have to pass legislation to require the removal of sugar -sweetened beverages from SNAP. That could take years to happen.
Senator Marco Rubio released the SNAP Nutrition Security Act, and Representative Josh Brecheen has reintroduced the Healthy SNAP Act to restrict sugary foods like soft drinks, candy, ice cream, and prepared desserts in SNAP.
According to the Miami New Times, American taxpayers subsidize roughly $4 billion worth of soda products through SNAP, with findings showing that low-income American adults drink two sugar-sweetened beverages daily.
