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Ashley Moody Asks RFK Jr. To Examine Regulation To 'Save The Orange Juice Industry Domestically'
Forbes Breaking News
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5/19/2025
At a Senate Health Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) questioned HHS Sec. RFK Jr. about
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00:00
Senator Moody.
00:02
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04
And thank you for being here.
00:06
I think it is wonderful that we are doing this hearing.
00:10
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:12
And I believe this is the HELP Committee's first HHS budget
00:16
hearing in more than two decades.
00:18
And certainly, I don't think this afternoon has been easy on you.
00:22
And we are grateful that you're willing to answer the hard questions.
00:25
Thank you, Senator Moody.
00:26
And have the difficult discussions because if I heard you correctly,
00:31
you know, the 60%, 50%, whatever increase in the last five years in your agency,
00:38
you said reflected or resulted in people getting sicker and more people dying.
00:43
And we have to do more than just think throwing money at something is going to solve a problem.
00:50
And I am grateful for everyone that's stepping up on the cabinet and saying,
00:55
I want to do this job in a deliberate way that's going to deliver for the people.
00:59
That means more than just coming here to Washington and throwing money at problems
01:04
and spending taxpayer money without giving a lot of deliberate forethought to results.
01:09
And I think that's what you've been trying to say here today.
01:12
And I appreciate you tackling this because not many people would want to brave this job,
01:18
certainly at this moment in time.
01:20
And as our nation is spiraling out of control and more and more debt and more and more spending,
01:26
we have got to be responsible for the future stability and success of this country.
01:31
So thank you. I start there.
01:33
I also note that in some of the numbers that we saw in this proposal,
01:39
there wasn't much information in terms of asking for more money.
01:43
I'm assuming that you're not asking for money specifically related to the FDA.
01:47
And I wanted to focus on a few things.
01:49
And I believe your approach is probably going to be how can we be better?
01:53
How can we use the resources we have to do more for the American people,
01:56
deliver on their health without spending more money?
01:59
And one of those ways I believe in the FDA would be to tackle Chinese illicit vapes.
02:07
I think 60% of their vape market that are in no way regulated.
02:10
We have no idea what are in these things.
02:12
Chemical ridden vapes all over the United States being bought by all of our kids.
02:18
I would ask that you dig into that and look at that.
02:22
I know the FDA has been backlogged and the excuse kept, you know,
02:27
excuses kept coming out on why they weren't following through and enforcing this thing.
02:31
Meanwhile, we have more and more kids that are vaping these chemicals
02:35
and we have no idea what's in them.
02:37
So would you look at that with your department using the resources that you're asking for today?
02:41
Yeah, absolutely. We are looking at it right now.
02:44
And during the Biden administration, the FDA slow walked the approvals for U.S. vaping companies.
02:54
And the U.S. vaping companies, in my view, were acting very responsibly.
03:01
They were putting chips in their vapes that would make sure that young people could not use them.
03:08
They were giving good information about addiction.
03:11
And they had very extensive labels.
03:16
They really went out of their way not to make it attractive to children.
03:20
They were slow walk, so they're off the market.
03:23
And in order to fill the vacuum, hundreds of Chinese companies came in with these colored, beautifully, you know,
03:33
attractive comic books.
03:34
Sour grape, watermelon.
03:35
Watermelons.
03:36
All these flavors are targeted to kids.
03:38
They have video games on the vapes that lure kids into addiction.
03:43
So you're in tune with that.
03:44
And we are going to wipe them out.
03:47
We're going to get rid of all of them.
03:48
Thank you for that commitment.
03:49
As a mother of a teenager and on behalf of all moms of teenagers, I know that vaping was
03:54
going on in some of even our elementary and middle schools.
03:57
We thank you.
03:58
Using the resources that are given to you, if we were just more deliberate and aggressive
04:02
in what we're doing within the agency, I think we can make a huge difference.
04:05
And I want to direct your attention to one more important issue.
04:08
One of the things that drives me crazy is when nonsense regulations are on the books
04:14
and they have no benefit whatsoever, but yet they're on the books and businesses are trying
04:18
to comply with them.
04:19
In our citrus industry, our orange juice producers, there is a regulation that requires a certain
04:25
sugar content.
04:26
It's called a BRICS standard.
04:28
It doesn't affect quality or nutrition at all.
04:30
In fact, our oranges now that are being produced in Florida produce slightly less sugar.
04:35
But because of this arbitrary standard, producers of orange juice in Florida have now had to
04:41
start importing from foreign companies and foreign nations oranges into our country to
04:47
mix with our products to deliver orange juice.
04:51
The standard, it doesn't affect quality or nutrition.
04:53
To raise the sugar content in the orange juice.
04:55
We want to lower the sugar content that's required by this regulation.
04:59
I'm sure you would not disagree with that.
05:01
But would you look into an interim final rule that would lower that slightly to save the
05:06
orange juice industry domestically?
05:07
Yeah.
05:08
Why don't you call Heather Flick, who's behind me, or Hannah Anderson this week and we will
05:15
act on that as quickly as we can.
05:17
Again, using the resources we have, just being smarter in our approach, we can do a lot
05:21
to save a once thriving industry.
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