What you need to know about the MAHA Commission

According to the executive order, the initial mission of the MAHA Commission will "be to advise and assist the President on how best to exercise his authority to address the childhood chronic disease crisis" and to "re-direct our national focus, in the public and private sectors, toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease. This includes fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles."

Specifically, the order says the commission will study any potential causes of the "childhood chronic disease crisis" in the United States, including "the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, Government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism."

The commission will also collaborate with farmers on the U.S. food system and "ensure expanded treatment options and health coverage flexibility."

The order also states that federally funded health research should "avoid conflicts of interest" through renewed transparency and open-source data and calls for "gold-standard research on why Americans are getting sick in all health-related research funded by the federal government."

Kennedy will chair the commission, and other members will include:

• The Secretary of the Department of Agriculture
• The Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development
•  The Secretary of the Department of Education
• The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs
• The Environmental Protection Agency Administrator
• The Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• The Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
• The Director of the National Economic Council
• The Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors
• The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
• The FDA Commissioner
• The CDC Director
• The NIH Director

"This groundbreaking commission will be charged with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illness, reporting its findings and delivering an action plan to the American people," President Trump said in the Oval Office last week. "And it's going to be a plan that people are really wanting to hear."