Claim:
In November 2025, the U.S. Senate cut food safety regulations in a funding bill to reopen the government.
Rating:
After lawmakers passed a bill to fund the U.S. government on Nov. 12, 2025, ending a weeks-long shutdown, a rumor spread online that the act included major cuts to food safety laws.
The claim spread on Facebook, X and Bluesky. Meanwhile, Snopes readers asked for verification of a popular post from Facebook account Occupy Democrats about the rumor (screenshot).
Senate lawmakers did, in fact, pass provisions in the funding bill that made cuts to FDA rules aimed at preventing food contamination and foodborne illnesses, as first reported by The Lever, an investigative news outlet. These cuts made it into the final legislation, approved by the House of Representatives, that Trump signed into law on Nov. 12.
Thus, we have rated this claim true.
In the Senate, every Republican, seven Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats voted for the bill. In the House, all but two Republicans voted in favor alongside six Democrats who broke with their party.
One Snopes reader also asked whether lawmakers passed the cuts “because they were paid off,” an apparent reference to the allegation that the restriction on regulations came after “massive donations from corporate lobbyists.” Various representatives of food industries have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress in support of their interests, including cuts to food safety regulations. Food industry groups also donate to politicians.
Legally speaking, however, lobbying and donations are not the same as bribery, or being “paid off.”
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune did not immediately return requests for their rationale behind reducing food safety laws. Many industry groups opposed the rules on various grounds, including that they were not necessary for food safety or burdensome.
Cuts in the bill
Two sections of the legislation made cuts to FDA food safety regulations by prohibiting the agency from using government funds to enforce rules affecting certain kinds of produce and traceability of the food supply.
Section 735, Page 56 essentially exempted the hops, wine grapes, almonds and legume (or “pulse crops”) industries from two FDA rules. The first rule, from 2015, established “science-based minimum standards for the safe growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce.”
“The rule sets forth procedures, processes, and practices that minimize the risk of serious adverse health consequences or death,” the summary of the 2015 rule stated. “We expect the rule to reduce foodborne illness associated with the consumption of contaminated produce.”
The same section also exempted the aforementioned industries from a rule, finalized by the FDA but pending from taking effect as of this writing, that updated quality standards for water used on produce and farmworker hygiene practices.
Here’s the full text for Section 735, Page 56 (emphasis ours):
SEC. 735. None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to enforce the final rule promulgated by the Food and Drug Administration entitled ‘‘Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption”, and published on November 27, 2015, and the proposed rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration pending at the Office of Management and Budget entitled ”Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding Produce for Human Consumption Related to Agricultural Water” (86 Fed. Reg. 69120 and 87 Fed. Reg. 42973), with respect to the regulation of entities that grow, harvest, pack, or hold wine grapes, hops, pulse crops, or almonds.
Section 780, Page 64 prohibited the FDA from enforcing any rules created in response to Section 204 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, “Enhancing Tracking and Tracing of Food and Recordkeeping,” until July 20, 2028. The funding bill also specifically blocked a rule called “Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods.”
That rule, proposed by the first Trump administration in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, was supposed to help the FDA “rapidly and effectively identify recipients of foods to prevent or mitigate foodborne illness outbreaks and address credible threats of serious adverse health consequences or death resulting from foods being adulterated or misbranded.” Former President Joe Biden’s administration finalized the rule in 2023.
Section 780 of the funding bill also required the FDA to engage with the “regulated entities” to create “additional flexibilities” — in other words, looser regulations — in connection with the traceability rules.
Here’s that section in full on Page 64 (emphasis ours):
SEC. 780. No funds appropriated by this Act may be used to administer or enforce the ”Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods”, published on November 21, 2022 (87 Fed. Reg. 70910), or any other rule promulgated in accordance with section 204 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (21 U.S.C. 2223), prior to July 20, 2028. Further, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shall:
(1) Engage quarterly with the regulated entities, including farms, restaurants, retail food establishments, and warehouses distributing to retail food establishments and restaurants, to identify and implement, as appropriate, additional flexibilities for satisfying the rule’s lot-level tracking requirement, as appropriate, such that regulated entities can comply with the November 21, 2022, rule consistent with section 204(d)(1)(L)(iii), which prohibits the agency from requiring product tracking to the case level.
(2) Within 180 days of enactment of this Act, the Food and Drug Administration is directed to provide industry stakeholders with recommendations for these additional flexibilities satisfying the rule’s lot-level tracking requirement, as appropriate.
(3) The FDA shall provide assistance to industry regarding how to handle food waste recovery, reclamation, intra-company transfers, customer returns under the rule and initiate a series of hypothetical data intake exercises to test the capabilities of the FDA’s Product Tracing System and, upon request and as resources allow, the covered entity systems and identify any technical difficulties prior to full implementation.
In sum, the funding bill that reopened the government — introduced by Senate Republicans and signed into law by Trump on Nov. 12 — included provisions that delayed, weakened or prohibited FDA enforcement of ongoing and pending food safety regulations. The regulations affected included safety and hygiene standards for handling produce and enhanced recordkeeping for certain parts of the food chain supply.
