USDA would lose responsibility for maintaining and updating the federal government's "food guide pyramid" under legislation offered by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.). Instead, the duty would be assigned to the National Academies of Science, a move the sponsors say would "remove politics and special interests from national nutrition advice."

Under the legislation, the independent Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Science would be in charge of developing and publishing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Food Guide Pyramid. The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to contract with the IOM every five years to develop the nutritional material. The first report would be due in a year. The legislation also would create a grant program to increase physical activity in schools, worksites and communities. Among other things, the money would be used to promote lifelong physical activity, employer wellness programs and safe walkways and cycling paths in communities.

In a statement, Fitzgerald says USDA is the wrong department to be dispensing objective advice to consumers on diet, considering the department's main mission is to promote the sale of agricultural products. He said the agency "strongly pushes categories of foods that are leading to dramatic increases in obesity and health-related problems in the United States." Fitzgerald claims the legislation would "provide the public with the most straightforward, scientific information possible in the confusing arena of nutritional advice. It will help those Americans who chose to be fit over fat."

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