SB 25 would mandate labels of food additives not recommended for human consumption and beef up nutrition and exercise requirements in public schools.
Schoolchildren would have increased exercise and nutrition course requirements, and food manufacturers would be required to label products containing a long list of potentially harmful ingredients under legislation preliminarily passed Sunday by the House.
However, its sponsor warned that last-minute changes could undermine at least part of the bill.
SB 25 was filed and made a legislative priority to address documented increases in obesity, diabetes and some cancers, said state Rep. Lacey Hull, the Houston Republican carrying the legislation in the House. The bill passed without opposition in the Senate and has Democratic and Republican cosponsors in the House.
"This is about the MAHA parents and the crunchy-granola parents coming together to say we are sick and tired of being sick and tired," Hull said, referencing the "Make America Healthy Again" initiative from the Trump administration. "This is Republicans and Democrats coming together for Texas kids."
During a four-hour debate, Hull repeatedly emphasized that the White House was looking to Texas to lead the way on state-level nutrition requirements. Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently released a report highlighting ultraprocessed foods and environmental toxins as driving causes of chronic disease, and he has announced he will ask the food industry to phase out artificial dyes.
"With this bill, Texas will lead the nation," Hull said.
Under SB 25, manufacturers would be required to warn consumers if their products contain ingredients deemed "not recommended for human consumption" by authorities in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom. This applies to additives such as Red Dye 40, butylated hydroxyanisole, propylparaben, or synthetic trans fatty acids.
"The choice being: you're going to put the label on your food, or you're going to take those additives out of your food," the bill's author, Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, said on March 5.
But an amendment added Sunday night could undermine that aspect of the proposal. Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, introduced a change that nullifies labeling requirements for ingredients regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. VanDeaver argued the amendment would prevent manufacturers from navigating conflicting federal and state standards, but Hull countered that it effectively guts the bill.
"The entire point of this bill is because of decades of federal inaction," Hull told her colleagues on the floor. "Federal preemption is another attempt to kill this bill and prevent any change from happening, just like we've seen in D.C. for years. None of us ran for office to take direction from congressmen in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco. Texas is not waiting."
VanDeaver's amendment succeeded 79-48.
Tensions ran high as House members from both parties sought to roll back other aspects of the legislation.
An amendment by Republican Rep. Pat Curry, of Waco, would have replaced several of the mandates with a study to "examine the scientific necessity and efficacy" of the requirements in the measure. Hull said the amendment again "guts the entire bill" and moved to kill the amendment outright. Members rebuffed her request.
The change appeared set to pass until Kolkhorst entered the chamber and engaged in an animated discussion near the speaker's desk, out of earshot of most members and reporters on the floor.
Hull made a last-ditch appeal for the amendment to be voted down, and this time most members complied.
Before that, the House approved a Democrat-led amendment to strike the bill's college nutrition course requirements in a 114-25 vote.
"I love a little government overreach, but even this is too much," Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu of Houston said of the course requirements. "This is telling grown adult people, people in universities, in college already, what's good for them."
The House version of the bill does preserve beefed-up requirements for physical education and health classes. All public high school students would be required to take a half-credit of nutrition education under SB 25, which must return to the Senate for consideration of changes made in the House. The measure also reinstates a requirement that students take PE classes for all three years of middle school. Students can seek exemptions for out-of-school sports.
According to the bill, school officials "may not restrict participation in recess or other physical activity" to penalize poor academic performance or misbehavior for public school children in kindergarten through grade 5. PE cannot be restricted because of academic performance or misbehavior in grades 6, 7 and 8.
When it came time to vote on the bill, which differs in some aspects from the Senate's version, the House delivered a lopsided and bipartisan 105-28 vote in favor. The House will revisit SB 25 for debate and a final vote on Monday.