Some gifts keep on giving. Thirty years after the passage of DSHEA — the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act signed into law by President Clinton in October of 1994 — the industry continues to benefit from the advocacy of those early champions on Capitol Hill who found a way to get a controversial bill over the finish line.
That early legislative victory, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), set the idea into motion that “political champions” were a key piece of the puzzle for supplements, an industry that operates somewhere in between the regulatory strictures of pharma and food. The outsized impact of Hatch and Harkin through DSHEA is exactly why the supplement industry continues to talk this way, in search of its next political champions.
But it has become something of a one-sided conversation. Times have changed, and champions are hard to find these days.
The golden era of supplement industry support
Back in 1994, legislating tended to happen from the bottom up, which served DSHEA well as a grassroots effort by industry and lawmakers to energize consumer advocates around the threats of governmental interference into their favorite natural products. Back in 1994, earmarks greased the policy wheels, and committee chairs drove the legislative agenda. Bipartisan legislation like DSHEA had a fighting chance, at least on occasion.
“Those champions of old were able to enact standalone pieces of legislation that were impactful,” said Kyle Turk, VP of Government Affairs at the Natural Products Association (NPA). “Now everything becomes an omnibus, which makes it more difficult to stay germane to an issue.”
In today’s political climate, bottom-up feels a lot more like top-down, with the “four corners” of leadership dictating the legislative agenda. Laws start with the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate, and then trickle down to the rank and file on committees. Everyone either gets in line or they don’t.
This is challenging for an industry like supplements, which doesn’t pay user fees like pharmaceuticals and, thanks to DSHEA, is decidedly not looking to whip up a big, new piece of legislation. The supplement industry has matured to a point where the regulatory moves feel more technical and tactical. It’s less about nurturing and spotlighting an overall industry champion and more about finding the right leaders to fight a specific battle.
Whether you love DSHEA for the growth and innovation it sparked in the industry, or hate it for the lower barriers to entry that let charlatans and hucksters cozy up to the table, DSHEA was a singular moment in time that just couldn’t happen in 2026. That golden era came and went. “The most significant difference between then and now is the makeup of Congress and the mechanics of how it operates,” said Turk. “It’s more difficult for champions to separate themselves now.”
“Today, the landscape is different, and what’s notable is the collection of bipartisan voices engaging on supplement policy — through the caucus, committees and sponsorship of targeted legislation.”
— Steve Mister, Council for Responsible Nutrition
In search of that next supplements champion
But the industry has certainly tried. Upon his retirement in 2015, Sen. Harkin all but anointed Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) his successor with a public meeting in Sen. Hatch’s office. Heinrich would go on to engage deeply with the industry for a period of time and join the supplement caucus, looking to better enforce DSHEA rather than rewrite it. While many view Heinrich as an important senior supporter of the industry, his ascent to champion status never materialized.
Additional names came up in the wake of Hatch’s subsequent retirement in 2019. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) was well-positioned in a key state but lost her election in that same year, 2019, and later succumbed to cancer. Five or so names would surface with each new crop in Washington, D.C. Some would stick; some wouldn’t. Some would survive and advance up the rungs of power, but many would not.
In that latter camp, there’s Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-California), who landed on the pivotal Committee on Energy and Commerce but declined to seek re-election in 2025. Same goes for Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-South Carolina). While Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) now serves as Ranking Member of Energy and Commerce, he’s often aligned with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), a noted industry critic looking to increase the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority over supplement regulations. It’s important to note that industry opinion of Sen. Durbin is evolving, with leading associations now actively engaging the senator on product listing and transparency.
To put it bluntly, no names make the champion list after Hatch and Harkin, and for good reason. The industry needs a champion less than it once did, and modern politics makes it much harder to crown champions, regardless of the industry in question.
It comes as no surprise, then, to find that leading voices in the industry want to see the term “champion” put out to pasture.
“‘Champions’ come along once in 50 years or so,” said Loren Israelsen, founder and president of the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA). “I think we’d be better served to use other terms. The industry needs legislators now who can serve effectively as leaders, supporters and advocates.”
Given the reduced need for an outright champion, the list of relevant names who matter for supplement regulation in the current Congress ties nicely to the resurrected Dietary Supplement Caucus (DSC).
“There’s a broader bench, rather than a single standout successor,” said Steve Mister, president and CEO at the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN).
Through the DSC, Sens. Heinrich and John Curtis (R-Utah) emerge as leaders, as do Reps. Mike Kennedy (R-Utah) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas) on the House side.
“Historically, lawmakers from Utah and other states with a strong industry presence continue to be engaged,” said Mister. “Overall, there is bipartisan interest and activity, even if it doesn’t center on a single ‘champion.’”
For some wildcards to throw in the pot as interested bystanders, experts point to Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), as well as Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who delivered an impassioned speech about his own personal wellness journey at a recent MAHA event. Personal stories of health transformation can help turn leaders and supporters into champions.
“Champions are rarely something you can plan for — they tend to emerge when the moment calls for it,” said Mister. “Today, the landscape is different, and what’s notable is the collection of bipartisan voices engaging on supplement policy — through the caucus, committees and sponsorship of targeted legislation.”
“We need both now, the grassroots and the top-down, to influence leadership agendas.”
— Dan Fabricant, Natural Products Association
Graduating from Politics 101
Here’s another reason why champions are hard to find in today’s supplement industry — politics.
“There’s not a lot of center-aisle legislation happening anymore,” said Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., CEO and president at NPA. “The politics are catering more to the whims of the different fringes of each party now.”
In a divisive climate, it’s hard for centrists to find common ground, and senior politicians get pulled toward their base. Neither is good fodder for growing industry champions like Hatch and Harkin, should the need arise.
The longevity of DSHEA also moves the focus from big swings to little ones.
“To me, ‘champion’ infers actively working to achieve specific and significant legislative change,” said Israelsen. “That’s not the ask right now. Major legislation or amendments to DSHEA are not currently on our horizon line. The needs now are more administrative and nuanced.”
CRN would tend to agree, highlighting the network of lawmakers assembling to support the industry in its rich complexity.
“The law does not need a major overhaul, only targeted revisions to address particular issues that didn’t exist 32 years ago,” said Mister. “In today’s environment, any DSHEA reforms would likely be led by a bipartisan group rather than one or two dominant figures. In short, future ‘championship’ is likely to be shared.”
The daily work of lobbying and advocacy is well underway, with the Dietary Supplement Caucus back in place, and annual lobby days on the Hill active at both CRN and NPA. CRN’s next Day on the Hill is scheduled for June 10; and NPA’s next Fly-in Day will happen on May 12.
While these grassroots efforts to educate and inform matter, so does money. As the supplement industry scales into increasing relevance as a top-tier consumer products category, attracting major strategic investors and cabinet-level advocates, playing politics matters more than ever.
There’s a saying on Capitol Hill — “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” It’s attributed to Theodore Roosevelt with altruistic intent, but in practice it speaks directly to campaign contributions, an area where the supplement industry still lags in proportion to its size.
“We need both now, the grassroots and the top-down, to influence leadership agendas,” said Fabricant. “There are 6,000 associations in D.C., all fighting for oxygen. As an industry, we’ll see thousands gather at a trade show but a couple of hundred for a fly-in day. That’s not mature behavior.”
Said another way, the supplement industry is behind the curve when it comes to political acumen and playing politics, the kind of politics a champion might expect from a $73 billion industry.
Watch out for outliers
In the post-champion era, the supplement industry would also do well to keep an open mind. Lobbying days and caucuses build the bench, but new leadership can surface in surprising ways. Take Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-New York), the freshman congressman who recently sponsored federal preemption legislation to reinforce a single national standard for supplement regulations, in effect cutting the knees out from under a growing roster of quirky bills popping up at the state level.
“I look at Congressman Langworthy as a great example of an outlier,” said Turk. “His office saw some white space with dietary supplements, and we were able to educate him, not just on the issues facing the supplement industry, but how they directly impact his constituents.” The politics of today might be vitriolic and fickle, but every future champion starts just like this, with an issue and the desire to make a bigger name for themselves.
