WASHINGTON – Last week on Capitol Hill, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Sylvia Burwell to review the development of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

In March, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway (R-TX-11) and Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-MN-07) expressed concern that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, tasked with making 2015 DGA recommendations, went far beyond its scope when advising on issues such as food sustainability and tax policy—areas in which members of the Agriculture Committee “had neither the expertise, evidence, nor charter.” The USDA and HHS received more than 29,000 comments since the May 8 public commenting period closed.

During the hearing, the House committee took issue with the advisory committee’s suggestions for the U.S. government to consider implementing a “Bloomberg-style soda tax,” writes the NY Post, as well as consider limits on salt intake, sugar and red meat. The department heads pointed out that the guidelines are recommendations, and that a final report will be issued in December. 

“Consumers should be able to trust the science behind DGA without fear of political or personal bias influencing each recommendation. After all, these guidelines are intended to help Americans make educated food purchasing decisions and live a healthy lifestyle,” said Conaway during his opening remarks.

The NY Post continues that Burwell told committee members that taxing sugary soda drinks to reduce consumption would not be part of new dietary guidelines being issued this year. “We do not believe that that is something in scope of the work that we are doing,” she told the committee.

Vilsack also said that the recommendations for environmentally sustainable foods were also being scrapped, writes the NY Post “That’s not within the scope. It’s not dietary. It’s not nutrition and it doesn’t belong in this context,” he said.

The news source adds that U.S. Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA-08) questioned why the soda tax was even mentioned in the advisory committee’s report: “When I see issues like tax on sodas and other things being recommended it seems to me that ideology is taking precedent over science and that creates a tremendous credibility gap,” he said.