Natural products and supplements are under attack like never before—look no further than the brazen hit campaign being orchestrated against incoming Trump Administration nominees who support our products or have been in the business themselves. This well-funded and sophisticated campaign to discredit our industry, limit supplement access or add costly and unnecessary new regulations is spreading like a prairie fire in Congress, state legislatures and even within the FDA.
Thanks to Natural Products Association members, our growing grassroots coalition and our advocacy team in Washington, we have so far succeeded in blocking [nearly] all of these efforts. From Texas to California to Rhode Island and Illinois, we testified and lobbied across the country against misguided proposals with no scientific basis or public health benefit.
In Washington, we got creative by taking extraordinary actions with citizen petitions and landmark lawsuits against FDA to protect our industry … and won. And while playing defense is critical, we also played offense by gaining a number of new allies that will be important to us as we continue to protect the millions of Americans who enjoy our products as part of their healthy lifestyles.
119th Congress and a second Trump administration
On Nov. 5, the nation elected former President Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, marking only the second time in our nation’s nearly 250-year history that a former President was elected for a second time. It was a successful night for the Republican party, as it took control of the United States Senate and House of Representatives and won significant victories in state legislatures nationwide, including flipping control of the Michigan House of Representatives, expanding its majority in the New Hampshire House of Representatives and expanding its majority in the Texas House of Representatives by flipping a blue district in the Rio Grande Valley.
As President-elect Trump continues to form his new administration, the dietary supplement industry has been closely monitored, especially with the nominations for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), FDA Commissioner, NIH Director and Surgeon General. The NPA is thrilled with the nominations of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS, Dr. Martin Makary as FDA Commissioner, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as Director of NIH, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat as Surgeon General and Dr. Mehmet Oz as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Administrator, because, for the first time in our industry’s history, the top healthcare political appointees think it is important that Americans have the right to use nutritional supplements.
As NPA President and CEO Dr. Daniel Fabricant said in a recent Wall Street Journal article. analyzing the nominations, “People have lost faith in mainstream medicine because it doesn’t meet people where they are. People want alternatives.”
With these nominations, President Trump has signaled to not just the industry but the American people that his administration, in conjunction with Congress, will take a holistic approach to ensuring Americans reach their full health potential.
As the 119th Congress begins in the new year, NPA has already begun discussions with key congressional leaders outlining how our priorities succinctly align with the administration’s priorities for Making America Healthy Again. Policy priorities such as expanding access to dietary supplements through programs such as Health Savings Accounts, SNAP and WIC, or protecting our industry’s supply chain are critically important priorities. Our organization is optimistic we can make substantial progress.
Additionally, we believe this administration will close the door to frivolous policy proposals such as mandatory product listing. This is not to say that proponents of MPL, such as Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, will not introduce legislation aimed at creating a regulatory pathway for supplements that closely mirrors pharmaceuticals. Still, it certainly signifies that without a meaningful culture change within the FDA, proposals such as MPL will fall on deaf ears.
Instead, we expect Congress and the administration to be fully engaged in addressing the gaps consistently plaguing the FDA. For far too long, the industry has been crippled by the FDA’s misapplication of the Drug Exclusion Clause of DSHEA. The Agency has repeatedly ignored Congress and the statute’s plain language by applying an incorrect interpretation of the Drug Exclusion Clause, placing a figurative thumb on the scale in favor of drug companies. The misinterpretation of the law has caused significant harm to the industry and, unfortunately, disincentivizes companies from investing in research and development that could bring the next generation of dietary supplements to consumers. It is our expectation that this new administration and Congress will address this inequitable policy while ensuring the United States continues to be the standard bearer for world-class health products.
Inspections and the FDA’s enforcement of the law will also be under the microscope. The industry has consistently called on the agency to step up its inspection and enforcement efforts to curb bad actors from participation. In several instances, the industry has presented independent testing of products claiming to be one thing but tragically are anything but what they claim to be. This has resulted in several state legislators considering the industry as unregulated or harmful to consumers when, in fact, these bad actors are a symptom of a more significant problem.
Throughout the 119th Congress, NPA will be working with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to ensure the FDA is holding bad actors accountable and communicating its regulatory responsibilities to state government entities so state lawmakers have a clear picture of how dietary supplements are regulated. Unfortunately, as we have seen for the better part of the decade, misguided lawmakers across the country have proposed policies that not only are outbounds with federal law but also create an untethered matrix of regulatory complexity that makes it impossible to provide consumers with health products while communicating the benefits of dietary supplementation.
State of the states
In familiar places such as California, Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts, where lawmakers once again considered bills aimed at attacking the products we sell to consumers as being no better than alcohol and tobacco, the organization successfully stalled the legislative process for another session.
Special interest groups supporting proposals to restrict and prohibit access have consistently attempted to link products with significant safety portfolios, such as creatine, as directly causing eating disorders in the millions of consumers who use creatine every day. It’s hard even to consider what these special interest groups call science when their evidence is anything but scientific. However, it’s clear these groups have found their legislative champions who will introduce these bills, and it’s abundantly clear to our organization we need to continue traveling across the country educating lawmakers on the benefits of dietary supplements and the regulatory affairs overseeing the market.
As we sit here today, 13 states, blue and red, have demonstrated a willingness to consider creating a state-level regulatory scheme for dietary supplements. Throughout 2024, the Natural Products Association fought these proposals tooth and nail, and we are prepared to continue the fight in 2025, knowing there will be surprises along the way. Places such as Michigan, Texas and New Hampshire have joined the fray, with lawmakers introducing legislation that has become all too familiar. While the partisan makeup of these states on the surface appears to benefit our endeavors, now is not the time to take the peddle off the gas. In fact, the industry needs to double down on our state advocacy efforts, reinforcing the positive outcomes often found with dietary supplementation. Thousands of you have used the NPA’s grassroots platform to write, call and connect with your state officials, voicing the overwhelming support for maintaining access to dietary supplements, and we thank you.
But as 2025 approaches, we are calling on every one of you to take your advocacy to the next level. In the coming days, the Natural Products Association will be announcing our widely attended Legislative Fly-in Day, where NPA members storm our nation’s capital advocating on behalf of the dietary supplement industry across several key priorities, including expanded access to supplements through programs such as Health Savings Accounts, protecting our supply chain to ensure we continue to have the capability to provide the nation with the health products they seek and revising statutes that have disincentive companies from investigating ingredients that have the potential to be the next world-class dietary supplement.
The opportunity to participate in an event such as Fly-in Day should never be squandered. Washington, D.C., is home to over 6,000 trade organizations like the NPA, all competing for the opportunity to advocate on behalf of their industry and advance their priorities.
Relationships matter
Attending Fly-in Day and participating in the NPA’s grassroots campaigns are the meat and potatoes of advocacy basics. Equally important is developing relationships with your state legislators regardless of whether there is a bill the industry supports or opposes. Looking at the makeup of the most recent members of Congress, over 60% served as state legislators.
Relationships take significant time and effort to develop, even in our personal lives. The same goes for developing relationships with lawmakers; starting that process at the state level is one of the easiest ways to make a direct impact. As is with any lawmaker, state legislators rely on input from their constituents to better understand the needs and challenges of the communities they represent. Whether in the halls of Congress or your state capitol, lawmakers may not have expertise in every area they legislate.
By building a relationship with legislators, their staff and their networks, you can provide valuable insights to help them make more informed decisions on matters important to you. These personal relationships help hold legislators accountable to the constituents they serve. When you engage with them regularly, you remind them of their responsibility to represent the interests of the communities they serve.
Ultimately, this builds trust and understanding, which, as we’ve seen with Senators Orrin Hatch and Tom Harkin and Representatives Jeff Duncan and Tony Cardenas, leads to productive partnerships, allowing the industry and lawmakers to work together toward a common goal.
Throughout 2025, I encourage everyone to participate in the Natural Products Association because we have the capability and expertise to help you build meaningful relationships with your state legislators, fostering civic participation while playing a proactive role in shaping public policy.
2025 and the incoming Trump administration will determine the success of the dietary supplement industry for the next generation, and I encourage all of you to be active and willing participants in the policy-making process.
