House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) on Saturday said that the Surgeon General’s call to have alcohol labeled with a cancer warning is based on politicized science and cherry-picked data.
Vivek Murthy, Biden’s Surgeon General, said in a report on Friday that alcohol should come with a warning label, as it is allegedly a leading cause of preventable cancer.
Murthy said in a written statement announcing the 22-page report:
Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk.
The study claimed that seven types of cancer, including breast cancer and colon cancer, are linked to alcohol consumption. To spread awareness of the danger of alcohol, Murthy called for alcohol to have warning labels, similar to how tobacco products have warning labels.
Alcohol breaks down into acetaldehyde, a chemical that reportedly is known to harm DNA and increase the likelihood of cancer.
Comer has strongly condemned the report from the Surgeon General.
“The Surgeon General’s advisory on alcohol consumption politicizes science to achieve a predetermined outcome. The advisory cherry-picks data from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicines study – a study that is far more extensive and complete, and does not draw the same drastic conclusions as the Surgeon General,” he explained in a written statement to Breitbart News.
Comer continued:
For nearly a year, the Oversight Committee has demanded transparency from the Biden Administration regarding the formulation of its dietary guidelines, but it continues to obstruct our oversight. The lack of transparency surrounding the Surgeon General’s review process for this advisory is yet another example of the Biden Administration operating behind closed doors rather than providing the American people with full transparency.
As Comer said in his statement, the Kentucky conservative emphasized in a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra that the opaquenss of the of the HHS-funded studies on alcohol consumption “may intend to undermine” Congress’s intention of studying the impacts of alcohol scientifically.
Comer and Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Chair Lisa McClaim (R-MI) launched a probe into the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, especially related to alcohol consumption.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 and the National Nutrition Monitoring Act require the dietary guidelines to be based on scientific evidence and adhere to congressional intent.
In September, Comer issued a subpoena for documents and information, to which HHS only provided 18 pages of responsive documents.
Republicans have noted that eight of his office’s 12 policy goals revolve around mental health and the effects of firearm violence.
For instance, Murthy, in a report noting the alleged racial disparities of tobacco use, called tobacco-related illness a “social illness.”
“Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services must release all documents and communications related to the development of this advisory so that the American people can see how this politicized recommendation was created,” Comer concluded in his statement.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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