Sen. Elizabeth Warren is demanding answers from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about what she calls “political corruption” and its role in the Trump administration’s response to the biggest cyclospora outbreak on record in U.S. history.
The Massachusetts Democrat pinned the federal government’s “botched response” on political contributions and direct White House lobbying from Taylor Farms, whose lettuce sourced from central Mexico led to a multistate cyclospora outbreak.
Contributions and lobbying raise “urgent questions about the role this influence-peddling may have played in loosening federal food safety oversight and hampering the federal government’s response to the outbreak,” she wrote in the Thursday letter.
Federal campaign finance records and public scrutiny confirm that Taylor Fresh Foods, the parent company of Taylor Farms, and its leadership have donated millions to conservative and pro-Trump political organizations.
Congressional lawmakers and watchdogs are now scrutinizing an over $1 million political donation made to a Trump-aligned super PAC not long after the Food and Drug Administration delayed the Food Traceability Rule, which requires food businesses to track high-risk foods across key supply chain checkpoints, by 30 months.
Critics assert a connection between the donations and regulatory delays, while the company and the White House strongly deny any quid pro quo.
Ms. Warren said the “specter of corruption — and quid pro quo politics — casts a darker shadow over these actions, particularly if political contributions from Taylor Farms’ parent company may have influenced policy changes that subsequently endangered millions of Americans.”
Total reported U.S. cases of the major foodborne parasite outbreak have topped 24,000, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including 13,895 laboratory-confirmed cases and over 10,400 probable or pending cases under investigation. Cases span across 47 states.
The CDC traced the outbreak to lettuce grown by Taylor Farms and supplied to restaurants such as Taco Bell. After a back-and-forth battle over who’s to blame, Taylor Farms then issued a voluntary recall in July.
The FDA reported a false-positive test for cyclospora in a Taylor Farms lettuce sample, but maintained that strong epidemiological and traceback data still links lettuce to Taylor Farms.
Taylor Farms said the agency “apologized” for a mistake, but the FDA denied issuing an apology, prompting the company to alter its public statements.
“The federal government’s communications regarding the outbreak, including information about its cause, have been confusing, inconsistent, and incomplete,” Ms. Warren wrote.
The lettuce distributor reportedly pleaded with White House and FDA officials to delay the recall, prompting the FDA to subsequently reverse its initial positive test finding.
“This sequence of events reveals the Trump administration’s ‘myriad missteps’ in responding to the largest cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history,” Ms. Warren wrote. “Taylor Farms’ attempts to influence the government’s public health response are equally alarming and raise questions about whether the government’s public health decisions may have been influenced by corporate interests.”
Ms. Warren requested a copy of all communications between the Department of Health and Human Services and Taylor Farms, hoping for “clarity on the administration’s plan to address the outbreak.”
Her letter is part of a wave of roughly a dozen letters from congressional Democrats to federal agencies and Taylor Farms over the past month.
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