Senators on the chamber's Health committee found common ground on issues of diabetes and childhood obesity but frequently disagreed on ways to improve Americans' health particularly through sugar labels and food stamps.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sander, an Independent who is the top non-Republican on the GOP-controlled Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions sparked the conversation with his proposed bill, the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act. The measure was of 12 measures upon which committee members voted Wednesday.

There wasn’t much of a partisan pattern when it came to senators’ opinions on the fairly bipartisan bill, as both GOP and Democrat lawmakers both disagreed and agreed with it.

“We have a horrendous diabetes crisis in this country, and that is related to the crisis we have with obesity," Sanders, said in his opening remarks, while also repeating his longtime political mantra hat “health care is a human right.”

He attributed these "crises" to the food industry producing and advertising junk food to American children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in February released a report concluding that from 2017 to March 2020, the frequency of obesity among U.S. children and adolescents was 19.7%, or roughly 14.7 million Americans aged 2-19 are obese.

Sanders thinks regulating government warning labels on the packaging of sugary drinks is the route to take, as outlined in his bill. 

The labels would read: “The Food and Drug Administration warning: drinking beverages for the average child can contribute to PC Type 2 diabetes. Not recommended to children.”

While parts of the bill raise policy and jurisdictional concerns for committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican said he's in support because it fosters bipartisanship, advances a priority of Sanders’, provides transparency to consumers about the food they’re eating and allows them the tools to make informed health decisions.

“I have long called on the NIH to increase focus on nutrition and obesity,” Cassidy said.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kanas, said that while he doesn’t want to increase regulation, the bill is a “good first step” because America is “a very sick country.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures, and I feel desperate,” he continued. This childhood obesity epidemic is for real. America is on this see food diet: see food, and eat it.”

GOP Sen. Susan Collins, Maine, and Sen. Rand Paul Kentucky, on the other hand, voiced their opposition.

Collins said she’s concerned the bill would ultimately make food more expensive for Americans and increase food waste. 

Paul doesn’t think labeling will accomplish anything, and introduced an amendment – which was ultimately tabled – that stops the subsidization of “bad food” and establishes a formula excluding sugary products like candy and soda from food stamps. 

Products included on food stamps were recently called out by GOP Rep. Brandon Gill, Texas, who sparred with a SNAP policy advocate during a House Oversight Committee hearing on June 25 over taxpayer funding for soft drinks. Gill specifically pressed the advocate on whether items like Coca-Cola should be allowed on food stamps.

Similarly, Paul cited that the first item on the food stamp list is Pepsi soft drinks, the fourth is bag snacks, 11th is candy bags and cookies are in the top 20.

In response, Sanders said Paul’s amendment stigmatizes children.

“You got a low-income kid. He's with his friends, and suddenly we're saying to that kid, ‘because you're poor and you're on food stamps, you know you can't do what your other friends are doing,’” he argued.

Since Paul’s amendment would add a policy to Sanders’ bill that falls outside the HELP Committee’s jurisdiction, it requires consultation with the Argiculture Committee to understand equities and receive technical feedback.

Further, Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, introduced an amendment that would require the federal government to measure and disclose the price and distributional effects of food label warnings, as well as certify that those requirements will not raise grocery bills before mandates go into effect to ensure working families don’t have to bear the cost of implementing such requirements.

Sanders, however, said Husted’s amendment is “a poison pill intended to further delay warning labels on ultra-processed foods” and that “there are a lot of reasons why food prices are going up, but it ain’t labels.” Cassidy also opposed the amendment, while agreeing with Husted’s concerns about the risk of making food prices more expensive for consumers.

Cassidy ended the hearing with gratitude to his committee members: “It has been a long morning. But when people say that Congress is not functioning well, this committee had a long morning because we were functioning well,” he said. “We've taken stuff from people off committee and on committee, and in a considerate way brought good things that make our country’s life better.”

The other 11 bills discussed during the hearing included the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, INSULIN Act of 2026, Making America’s Food Safer Act, Expedited Access to Biosimilars Act, CLEAR LABELS Act, SAFE Drugs Act of 2026, National Plan for Epilepsy Act, EMPOWER for Health Act, Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act of 2025 and the Rural Obstetrics Readiness Act. All were agreed to by a roll call vote. 

Katherine Pugh is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on X for more coverage.