Public Policy & NGOs
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TechNet Submits Comments on NIST's Zero Draft for AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification, and Validation Standard
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- TechNet, a network of technology CEOs and senior executives that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, issued the following news release on Sept. 12, 2025:
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TechNet Submits Comments on NIST's Zero Draft for AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification, and Validation (TEVV) Standard
TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of tech CEOs and senior executives, today submitted comments from TechNet CEO Linda Moore to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on its proposed zero draft for a standard on AI testing, evaluation, verification, and validation
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- TechNet, a network of technology CEOs and senior executives that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, issued the following news release on Sept. 12, 2025:
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TechNet Submits Comments on NIST's Zero Draft for AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification, and Validation (TEVV) Standard
TechNet, the national, bipartisan network of tech CEOs and senior executives, today submitted comments from TechNet CEO Linda Moore to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on its proposed zero draft for a standard on AI testing, evaluation, verification, and validation(TEVV). TechNet's comments commend NIST's constructive approach in creating an overarching framework that provides AI practitioners with the flexibility to design TEVV techniques tailored to specific systems and use cases, while recommending enhancements to strengthen the draft.
"Developing an effective TEVV approach is critical to building the trust in AI systems necessary to deploy and leverage these capabilities at scale and will help ensure that the next generation of AI technologies is built on a bedrock of trust and integrity," Moore said. "TechNet supports NIST's efforts to broaden participation in and accelerate the creation of TEVV standards that will meet the AI community's needs and spur greater AI development and deployment. This will require continued collaboration between government, academia, and industry, and we remain eager to partner with the administration in fostering innovation and advancing America's global AI dominance."
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September 12, 2025
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Re: Proposed Zero Draft for a Standard on AI Testing, Evaluation, Verification, and Validation
To Whom It May Concern:
TechNet appreciates the opportunity to comment on NIST's proposed zero draft for a high-level standard on AI testing, evaluation, verification, and validation (TEVV). Many of our nation's leading AI developers, deployers, researchers, and users are TechNet members and are utilizing industry-approved and science-backed TEVV methods and governance frameworks. To this end, TechNet appreciates NIST's constructive approach in creating an overarching framework to support AI practitioners in designing appropriate TEVV techniques for specific systems and cases, rather than mandating prescriptive TEVV methods.
TechNet is the national, bipartisan network of technology CEOs and senior executives that promotes the growth of the innovation economy by advocating a targeted policy agenda at the federal and 50-state level. TechNet's diverse membership includes dynamic American businesses ranging from startups to the most iconic companies on the planet and represents five million employees and countless customers in the fields of information technology, artificial intelligence, ecommerce, the sharing and gig economies, advanced energy, transportation, cybersecurity, venture capital, and finance.
TechNet supports NIST's effort to create a high-level, internationally relevant standard on AI TEVV. The rapid advancement and integration of artificial intelligence into critical sectors have created an urgent need for a standardized approach to TEVV. To help ensure the standard is both practical and effective, such a framework should provide a common language and methodology for developers, deployers, and users and offer actionable guidance that practitioners can implement with the flexibility to adapt to the evolving capabilities and emerging risks of nextgeneration AI systems. The following recommendations on the "Proposed Zero Draft for a Standard on AI TEVV" are intended to strengthen its foundation and help achieve its essential goals while ensuring it can serve as a durable and effective standard for managing AI risk.
Elevate Adversarial Evaluation
The draft acknowledges inconsistencies in the use of the term "red teaming" and aims for clarity. However, it currently relegates most specific TEVV methods, including adversarial approaches, to an appendix ("Appendix 2: Technical and sociotechnical approaches and methods"), treating them as part of an "incomplete catalog" rather than a core practice. Adversarial evaluation, including personabased red teaming, should be elevated from the appendix to a core component of the TEVV process outlined in the main body. This section should define the practice, establish its importance for discovering novel risks beyond standard testing, and provide guidance on when and how it should be implemented as a core, rather than optional, step for high-risk systems. In particular, adversarial evaluation which involves deliberately trying to elicit problematic outputs from AI systems by feeding data most likely to cause the AI system to fail or produce material that may be unsafe, harmful, or offensive is foundational for evaluating the robustness of an AI system against problematic prompts or unexpected inputs. As an example, one could apply reinforcement learning to the selection of environmental factors as input to the test cases in a modeling and simulation-driven test bed that would include the AI software running the autonomous systems. The environment could be treated as a "thinking adversary" in an asymmetric game. The environment would learn optimal strategies to defeat the autonomous system, even as the autonomous system learns improved strategies to counter the environment. This would both maximize the chance of finding key vulnerabilities and weaknesses and help discover ways to mitigate or avoid those vulnerabilities.
In addition to making red teaming a core practice, there should be additional guidance on the collaborative function between offensive (red) and defensive (blue) security teams. TechNet recommends including purple teaming as an important component of adversarial evaluation, threat identification, and risk mitigation.
Purple teams function differently from, and can be more complex than, red teams and blue teams due to their combination of both red and blue team functions. This section should define the concept as a collaborative exercise where red team findings are used to test and improve blue team detection and mitigation capabilities in real-time. Guidance should emphasize how purple teaming closes the loop, ensuring that identified vulnerabilities are not just documented but effectively addressed and that defenses work as expected.
Include Sector-Specific Examples and References
To make the framework more actionable, the appendices and main body should directly reference and provide examples using established, sector-specific resources and widely used AI security frameworks. Incorporating guidance on how to use frameworks, such as the MITRE ATLAS for adversarial threat modeling, OWASP Machine Learning Top 10 for common vulnerabilities, or SR 11-7 for model risk management in financial services, would provide practitioners with concrete tools to translate the standard into practice. Practitioners are also more likely to adopt a new standard if it aligns with and builds upon the tools and methodologies they already use and that are more relevant for their sector-specific needs. By referencing and integrating the concepts from previously established, sector-specific frameworks, the TEVV standard can provide practitioners with a clear bridge from their existing compliance and safety obligations to the specific demands of testing and evaluating AI systems.
Expand Agentic AI Scenarios
A dedicated section should be added to discuss agentic AI. With rapid industry development, agentic AI introduces unique challenges and risks to the AI ecosystem given the autonomy provided to the AI system and its ability to take human-independent actions to achieve an objective. A separate approach for evaluating systemic risks resulting from agentic AI models being empowered to act on their own should involve guidance on evaluating long-term planning, goal alignment, and the potential for unintended consequences in open-ended environments. The framework should look to address how to test for emergent behaviors and ensure that such systems have reliable safety protocols. Validation measures could include testing autonomous agent's ability to safely interact with APIs, databases, external systems, and other AI agents as well as validating that the agent maintains intended objectives under adversarial pressure.
Enhance AI Test Automation
Generative AI and other machine learning techniques are now being used to improve and automate many parts of the testing process. Generative AI can automatically create comprehensive test cases and realistic, synthetic test data based on requirements and documentation. AI can be used to automatically adapt test scripts when user interface elements or code change to help solve the challenge of maintaining tests for rapidly evolving applications. It can also analyze historical data to predict where defects are likely to occur, allowing quality assurance teams to focus testing efforts on high-risk areas. Intelligent test orchestration can improve testing efficacy as AI can learn from past behavior and optimize test runs across various environments for improved speed and consistency. These are all examples of how test automation could be more thoroughly incorporated into the TEVV framework to help address the unique challenges of AI, which differ from traditional software due to its complexity and non-deterministic behavior.
Establish a Framework for Continuous, Lifecycle Spanning Monitoring
The draft mentions applying TEVV across the "AI systems lifecycle" and discusses "in-situ evaluations," but it does not explicitly recommend or encourage continuous monitoring after a system has been deployed. The framework should be updated to encourage continuous, runtime TEVV that goes beyond pre-deployment testing to include ongoing monitoring of the system's performance, behavior, and security in its operational environment and further testing when key metrics change. Overall, testing should not be a final step, but rather a continuous process that is integrated into CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipelines to provide immediate feedback. This involves defining system objectives, translating them into measurable processes, and ensuring those processes are consistent and repeatable across multiple assessments. Dynamic evaluations should be considered alongside static testing to ensure that model drift, new vulnerabilities, and unexpected interactions are detected and addressed promptly. This will ensure the TEVV framework represents a dynamic, ongoing assurance mechanism that certifies a model remains safe, secure, and effective long after its initial deployment.
Strengthen Supply-Chain Verification Guidance
An AI model is not a monolithic entity; it is the product of a complex, multi-stage supply chain. A vulnerability or compromise in any single link of that chain can undermine the security, safety, and integrity of the final system. The draft correctly identifies the need to manage third parties and supply chains as a key challenge, and it notes that an organization's position in the supply chain is a key variable. However, this section could be strengthened by providing more specific recommendations on supply-chain verification. A sophisticated model can have its integrity undermined by a poisoned training dataset, a backdoored open-source dependency, or a compromised cloud environment. Robust supply chain guidance would ensure that security and safety considerations are built-in from the very beginning, preventing an organization from investing significant resources in testing a model that was already critically flawed due to a vulnerability inherited from its components. The guidance should detail the need for documentation covering a model's origin, training data, architecture, and any upstream components. This creates a "chain of custody" for AI models, allowing organizations to identify and mitigate risks inherited from third-party sources before they are integrated. It could also include vulnerability scanning, data quality audits, and vendor risk management strategies. By integrating supply chain verification measures, the TEVV framework would ensure that trust is not just assumed but is actively built and validated at every stage of the AI supply chain.
Refine the Concept Map
Refine the concept map to create a clearer distinction between evaluator intent and the system's threat model. For example, the map could differentiate between TEVV activities aimed at assurance (verifying a system meets its stated requirements) and those aimed at adversarial discovery (finding unknown flaws). This would clarify that the choice of TEVV method should be driven by both the system's specific threat landscape and the goals of the evaluation. One way of refining the concept map could include a hierarchal diagram that is specific to the AI system and its context that defines the threat model for each AI system and then identifies evaluator intent and evaluation methods for each threat. This would ensure evaluators are explicit about whether they are confirming existing specifications or searching for new, unknown flaws and make it easier to see gaps in the TEVV plan to allow for more comprehensive coverage. It would also create a shared vocabulary for developers, security testers, and project managers to discuss risk and evaluation strategies and lead to more actionable guidance in selecting the appropriate methods to test for risks based on clear strategic goals.
Develop a Standardized AI Metrics and Measurement Library
Organizations often default to simple metrics like accuracy, which fail to capture the full picture of a model's performance regarding fairness, robustness, or privacy. The TEVV framework should include a standardized library of recommended metrics for different AI risks and use cases. For TEVV to be effective, it should be grounded in concrete, consistent, and context-appropriate measurement. Simply stating that a model should be "robust" or "fair" is insufficient. There should be a common language and a standard set of tools to quantify how robust or how fair it is. A standardized metrics library would make TEVV results more consistent, comparable, and meaningful across different organizations and industries, moving beyond simplistic measures toward a more holistic and responsible evaluation of AI systems. It would also serve as a common language and a starting point for organizations by providing guidance on which metrics are most appropriate for specific applications. It would not need to be a rigid, one-size-fits-all checklist, but instead a comprehensive list of metrics from which organizations can select the most appropriate measures based on their specific context, risk tolerance, and legal requirements. In this way, the library would be structured around key risk categories, providing specific, mathematically defined metrics for each.
Such a library would provide a shared, unambiguous language for developers, evaluators, regulators, and customers to discuss and compare AI system performance. Organizations could better benchmark their systems against industry standards and compare the TEVV results of different models or vendors in a meaningful way. A clear set of standardized metrics could also help catalyze the development of automated tools to calculate these metrics, making rigorous TEVV more scalable and less costly. As part of this effort, AI providers could share their data and test sets to help build a robust catalogue and support fraud and deepfake detection.
Introduce a Clear Severity and Risk Classification Scheme
Simply identifying flaws during TEVV is insufficient; an effective framework must provide a structured way to evaluate their potential impact and prioritize them for remediation. Without a standardized classification scheme, organizations risk misallocating resources by treating a minor issue with the same urgency as a critical vulnerability. Introducing and incorporating a standardized severity and risk classification scheme that would be applicable across model type and use-case would empower organizations to move from a simple list of findings to a prioritized, risk-informed action plan. This could be a matrix that helps organizations triage findings based on their potential impact (e.g., critical, high, medium, low) and likelihood of occurrence. A formal classification system would enable organizations to respond proportionally and prioritize the most critical risks for immediate mitigation. By including this type of structured, actionable risk classification scheme, the TEVV standard would help provide organizations with a clear, consistent, and defensible methodology for managing the risks associated with AI systems.
Instead of reinventing the wheel, a robust TEVV framework should draw inspiration from well-established and proven risk classification schemes from related fields like cybersecurity and functional safety. Recommending these models provides a common language and a foundation of trust. For example, the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is the de facto industry standard for rating the severity of software vulnerabilities in traditional cybersecurity. Its strength lies in its detailed, quantitative, and transparent approach. The principles of CVSS are directly translatable to AI vulnerabilities. The TEVV framework could propose an "AI-VSS" that adapts these metrics to meet the unique characteristics of AI. This could include expanding the impact metrics to look at security and privacy and expanding the attack vector to include AI-specific vectors such as model interface or user input.
Conclusion
In a fiercely competitive global landscape, the United States' primary advantage will be its ability to deploy AI systems that are demonstrably safe, fair, and secure.
Developing an effective TEVV approach that is sufficiently predictive of performance is critical to building the trust in AI systems necessary to deploy and leverage these capabilities at scale and will help ensure that the next generation of AI technologies is built on a bedrock of trust and integrity. TechNet supports NIST's efforts to broaden participation in and accelerate the creation of TEVV standards that will meet the AI community's needs and spur greater AI development and deployment.
This will require continued collaboration between government, academia, and industry, and we remain eager to partner with the administration in fostering innovation and advancing America's global AI dominance.
Sincerely,
Linda Moore, President and CEO
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Original text here: https://www.technet.org/media/technet-submits-comments-on-nists-zero-draft-for-ai-testing-evaluation-verification-and-validation-tevv-standard/
[Category: Computer Technology]
Ripon Society: E&C Subcommittee Chair Griffith Reflects on State of American Politics, Nation's Health Care
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- The Ripon Society issued the following news release:
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E&C Subcommittee Chair Griffith Reflects on State of American Politics, Nation's Health Care
Twenty four years after 9/11 and less than 24 hours after the political assassination of conservative media personality and author Charlie Kirk, The Ripon Society hosted a breakfast discussion with U.S. House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), who shared his thoughts on the state of American politics as well as our nation's health care.
"America is based on ideals, and the very core
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- The Ripon Society issued the following news release:
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E&C Subcommittee Chair Griffith Reflects on State of American Politics, Nation's Health Care
Twenty four years after 9/11 and less than 24 hours after the political assassination of conservative media personality and author Charlie Kirk, The Ripon Society hosted a breakfast discussion with U.S. House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), who shared his thoughts on the state of American politics as well as our nation's health care.
"America is based on ideals, and the very coreideal is that there are certain unalienable rights granted by the Almighty," Chairman Griffith stated solemnly in his opening remarks. "That ideal, whether it be from the left or the right, whether it be foreign or domestic, is constantly under attack. We saw that on 9/11 from foreign terrorists. We saw that yesterday from an unknown terrorist in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
"It doesn't matter whether you're on the right or the left, trying to stop free discourse of ideas in the United States - it's just plain wrong, particularly when you use violence to do so."
Griffith - who was appointed to the Chairmanship in July - then discussed his Subcommittee priorities.
"Drug shortages and domestic manufacturing - I don't think there's any question, we have to bring back manufacturing, particularly of medicines and the active pharmaceutical ingredients in those medicines, we have to bring them back to the United States."
"The reason I believe that," he continued, "is that if we have the capability of doing it, then should the Chinese and/or the Indians decide to close this off - and they're the biggest producers of that - because of some kind of international dispute, we have the capability very quickly of ramping up because we have somebody here that's already making that active pharmaceutical ingredient.
"Should we find ourselves in some kind of a cold war or hot war, or just a trade dispute, we need to be prepared to ramp up American production of whatever it is we're going to need, and basic medical supplies is and ought to be at the top of the list."
Griffith then shared that he represents a hot spot for ALS and urged the FDA to authorize more treatments for diseases without cures.
"I do think the FDA has done a fabulous job. I do believe, and this is one that I do feel strongly about, that they have operated under the shadow of the thalidomide problem, which was legitimate. And they changed everything, as they should have. But today we're looking at so many rare diseases where we might have possibilities, and there isn't any real cure or there isn't any real treatment out there."
"If we're going to meet the gold standard that was put in place because of the nausea medicine, we're never going to get these problems solved."
Griffith then discussed the behemoth agency charged with conducting and supporting publicly-funded medical research - the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
"We have to have a few reforms. I believe when you have large agencies that go without aggressive oversight for long periods of time, and they don't examine themselves closely, that things will happen, and it's our job as Members of Congress to try to solve it."
Griffith - who represents a very rural part of the Commonwealth of Virginia - also discussed the issues facing rural pharmacies including PBMs.
"I've got pharmacies in rural areas dropping like flies. Part of it is because of what PBMs are doing, but PBMs have a place, they have a role. I want more information from PBMs. I want them to be more transparent about when the medicine comes in and when the medicine goes out and what the various discounts are for different insurance companies."
To view the remarks of Chairman Griffith before The Ripon Society Thursday morning, please click the link below: (https://youtu.be/_hS0GaovERA)
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The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 - Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP's success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.
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Original text here: https://riponsociety.org/2025/09/ec-subcommittee-chair-griffith-reflects-on-state-of-american-politics-nations-health-care/
[Category: Political]
Lawmakers Vote to Extend Cap and Trade as "Cap and Invest," Align Emissions Cap with Timeline to Meet State's Climate Action Goals
NEW YORK, Sept. 13 [Category: Environment] -- The Environmental Defense Fund posted the following news release:
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Lawmakers Vote to Extend Cap and Trade as "Cap and Invest," Align Emissions Cap with Timeline to Meet State's Climate Action Goals
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"Today's vote reaffirms California's commitment to a thriving economy with bold climate action. By aligning the future of cap and invest with the state's commitment to build a carbon-neutral economy by 2045, we can provide certainty of meeting our climate goals while keeping costs down for families. There is important work ahead to make certain
... Show Full Article
NEW YORK, Sept. 13 [Category: Environment] -- The Environmental Defense Fund posted the following news release:
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Lawmakers Vote to Extend Cap and Trade as "Cap and Invest," Align Emissions Cap with Timeline to Meet State's Climate Action Goals
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"Today's vote reaffirms California's commitment to a thriving economy with bold climate action. By aligning the future of cap and invest with the state's commitment to build a carbon-neutral economy by 2045, we can provide certainty of meeting our climate goals while keeping costs down for families. There is important work ahead to make certainCalifornia rises to the challenge. State leaders must ensure the implementation of price ceiling changes in the program maintains its environmental integrity while balancing the affordability needs of families.
"By signing this bill into law, Governor Newsom will cement California's future as a climate leader working with a growing list of partners across North America. The world can continue to look to California when it cannot look to DC."
* Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California State Director, Environmental Defense Fund
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Original text here: https://www.edf.org/media/lawmakers-vote-extend-cap-and-trade-cap-and-invest-align-emissions-cap-timeline-meet-states
Human Rights First: Trump Administration Attempts to Globalize Its Anti-Immigrant Agenda
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- Human Rights First issued the following news:
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Trump Administration Attempts to Globalize Its Anti-Immigrant Agenda
In the wake of public statements and media reports indicating that the Trump administration plans to subvert international agreements that protect people fleeing persecution, Human Rights First's Uzra Zeya said the following:
"The Trump Administration plan signals an alarming and dangerous effort to tear down long-standing legal norms that protect the human rights of people everywhere. This is not an effort to work toward constructive improvements
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- Human Rights First issued the following news:
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Trump Administration Attempts to Globalize Its Anti-Immigrant Agenda
In the wake of public statements and media reports indicating that the Trump administration plans to subvert international agreements that protect people fleeing persecution, Human Rights First's Uzra Zeya said the following:
"The Trump Administration plan signals an alarming and dangerous effort to tear down long-standing legal norms that protect the human rights of people everywhere. This is not an effort to work toward constructive improvementsbut part of a concerted effort to torpedo international law. The right to seek asylum has saved millions of lives. Ignoring the root causes of record forced displacement worldwide--armed conflict, repression, human rights violations, natural disasters, and climate disruption--while targeting the most vulnerable victims characterizes this Administration's scorched earth approach to migration.
The Trump administration appears to be exporting its domestic anti-immigrant agenda by trying to pressure other nations into joining a global campaign to tear down refugee protections. The end result will subvert human rights, block access to safety for those who are not white or wealthy, and exacerbate challenges faced by frontline countries hosting refugees.
The reality is clear: nearly 70 percent of refugees already find safety in neighboring countries, and 73 percent are hosted by low- and middle-income nations. Other governments will see this scheme for what it is--an assault on human rights that puts lives at risk, shatters international norms, and undermines the values the United States should stand for."
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Original text here: https://humanrightsfirst.org/library/trump-administration-attempts-to-globalize-its-anti-immigrant-agenda/
[Category: Sociological]
FFRF Action Fund: 'Secularist' Sen. Tim Kaine Opposes Rights Ordained From 'Our Creator'
MADISON, Wisconsin, Sept. 13 -- FFRF Action Fund, an organization that says it develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, posted the following news on Sept. 12, 2025:
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'Secularist' Sen. Tim Kaine opposes rights ordained from 'our Creator'
FFRF Action Fund's "Secularist of the Week" is Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., for challenging the notion that God-given rights serve as the foundation of the U.S. government.
At a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Kaine detailed
... Show Full Article
MADISON, Wisconsin, Sept. 13 -- FFRF Action Fund, an organization that says it develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, posted the following news on Sept. 12, 2025:
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'Secularist' Sen. Tim Kaine opposes rights ordained from 'our Creator'
FFRF Action Fund's "Secularist of the Week" is Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., for challenging the notion that God-given rights serve as the foundation of the U.S. government.
At a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Kaine detailedthe theocratic dangers of reducing all rights as being ordained from "our Creator," completely disregarding governance, society and humanity. "The notion that rights don't come from laws and don't come from the government, but come from the Creator -- that's what the Iranian government believes," asserted Kaine.
"It's a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Sharia law and targets Sunnis, Baha'is, Jews, Christians and other religious minorities," continued Kaine. "They do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So, the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling."
Kaine underscored: "I'm a strong believer in natural rights, but I have a feeling if we were to have a debate about natural rights in the room and put people around the table with different religious traditions, there would be some significant differences in the definitions of those natural rights."
Kaine was responding to remarks from Riley Barnes, a Trump nominee to serve as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. Barnes asserted the United States was founded on the principle "that all men are created equal because our rights come from God, our Creator, not from our laws, not from our governments." This is a common Christian nationalist misinterpretation of the Declaration of Independence, which states that "all men" are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."
Thomas Jefferson, who primarily penned the Declaration, wrote in his draft, later altered by others, that "all men are created equal & independent." Even more so, fundamental rights are outlined in the U.S. Constitution, which only references religion when asserting its exclusion from government. Solely deriving human rights from a Creator puts the rights of all U.S. citizens in the hands of individual religious interpretations, ignoring the multitude of religions and nonreligion practiced in the United States. Kaine is correct that the notion of God-given rights takes away from the authority of our secular laws and government and privileges one religion over another or nonreligion, which the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits.
President Trump called out Kaine during his remarks at the Museum of the Bible this week, which marked the second meeting of Trump's "Religious Liberty Commission."
"We are one nation under God, and we always will be," began Trump. "The need for this commission has never been more clear than it was last week when the ineffectual senator from Virginia, a man named Tim Kaine, stated that the notion our rights come from our Creator is, quote, 'extremely troubling' to him."
"But as everyone in this room understands, it is tyrants who are denying our rights and the rights that come from God," professed Trump. "The senator from Virginia should be ashamed of himself for many things. For many things, for things even beyond that. But in its own way, nothing is more important than those words. They were terrible words."
Trump appealed to his Christian nationalist audience, proclaiming, "As president, I will always defend our nation's glorious heritage, and we will protect the Judeo-Christian principles of our founding, and we will protect them with vigor. We have to bring back religion in America, bring it back stronger than ever before as our country grows stronger and stronger."
Trump's attack on Kaine only supports the senator's argument that deriving rights from a Creator, and not laws and government, fuels theocratic control. FFRF Action Fund profusely thanks Kaine for fighting for the U.S. Constitution and true religious liberty, which does not permit the privileging of one religion over another or nonreligion.
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FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.
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Original text here: https://ffrfaction.org/secularist-sen-tim-kaine-opposes-rights-ordained-from-our-creator/
[Category: Sociological]
Environmental Working Group: California Lawmakers Pass First-in-nation Bill to Protect Kids From Harmful Ultra-processed Foods in Schools
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- The Environmental Working Group issued the following news release on Sept. 12, 2025:
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California lawmakers pass first-in-nation bill to protect kids from harmful ultra-processed foods in schools
Science-based measure to define harmful UPF now heads to Gov. Newsom's desk
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SACRAMENTO - Today the California Legislature took a historic step to protect children's health by passing a trailblazing bill to legally define ultra-processed food, or UPF, and phase out some UPF from public school meals.
Assembly Bill 1264, introduced by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino),
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- The Environmental Working Group issued the following news release on Sept. 12, 2025:
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California lawmakers pass first-in-nation bill to protect kids from harmful ultra-processed foods in schools
Science-based measure to define harmful UPF now heads to Gov. Newsom's desk
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SACRAMENTO - Today the California Legislature took a historic step to protect children's health by passing a trailblazing bill to legally define ultra-processed food, or UPF, and phase out some UPF from public school meals.
Assembly Bill 1264, introduced by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino),received overwhelming bipartisan support from legislators in the Assembly and Senate. EWG is sponsoring the bill, which now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.
"Our public schools should not be serving students ultra-processed food products filled with chemical additives that can harm their physical and mental health and interfere with their ability to learn," said Gabriel.
UPF are industrially manufactured and chemically modified products. They're often made with potentially harmful additives to enhance taste, texture, appearance and durability.
The bill would also task the Department of Public Health to work with University of California experts to research UPF links to disease and health harms. These experts would then identify UPF that are "particularly harmful" and should be phased out of public school food.
The bill has bipartisan support, including from Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-East Nicolaus) and Progressive Caucus Chair Alex Lee (D-San Jose).
"In California, Democrats and Republicans are joining forces to prioritize the health and safety of our children, and we are proud to be leading the nation with a bipartisan, science-based approach," said Gabriel.
"This new legislation will ensure that schools are serving our students the healthy, nutritious meals they need and deserve," he added.
The food vendors that supply California's K-12 schools would be required to comply with the law starting January 1, 2028.
Health threats of UPF
Ultra-processed food and drinks are designed to be hyper-palatable, engineered to be addictive and marketed to be profitable for their makers - all at the cost of nutritional value.
"Ultra-processed foods aren't just unhealthy - they're engineered for overconsumption. Like addictive substances, they hijack the brain's reward system, making it difficult for people to cut back, even when facing serious health consequences," said Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.
"America's diet is now dominated by ultra-processed foods, many of which were shaped by the same corporate strategies that once hooked people on cigarettes. The result? Rising rates of obesity, diabetes and diet-related diseases, especially in children," added Gearhardt.
Scientific research links UPF to serious health harms, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disorders such as Crohn's disease and fatty liver disease, reproductive and neurobehavioral harms, and mental health issues.
Obesity is chief among the health problems linked to UPF. Rates of obesity
in the U.S. and globally have skyrocketed in tandem with rising UPF consumption.
Food companies have consistently opposed efforts to regulate UPF. They market and sell these products to consumers, in California and nationwide, without disclosing their potential harms.
Landmark UPF legislation
If Newsom signs AB 1264 into law, it would establish the first U.S. legal definition of UPF. A type of food would be considered UPF if it was high in saturated fat, added sugar or sodium and contains a food additive such as flavor, color, emulsifier or a thickening agent.
The state's Department of Health would then use this definition to identify UPF "of concern," so defined because they are particularly harmful and should be phased out of schools.
"Processed foods can have a place in a healthy diet, but Americans - especially children - consume too many ultra-processed foods, which contributes to increased rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, EWG's senior vice president for California.
"AB 1264 takes an important step toward protecting student health by identifying and removing the most harmful ultra-processed foods from California schools," added Del Chiaro. "We commend Assemblymember Gabriel and all of the bill's co-authors for taking commonsense steps to better protect the well-being of California's children."
California schools are projected to provide over 1 billion meals this school year. AB 1264 would help protect students from harmful, hyperpalatable chemicals and ensure that all children - from a diversity of economic backgrounds - have access to healthy and nutritious foods.
"Healthy school meals are the fastest, most powerful way to create a healthier future for our children and our nation," said Nora LaTorre, CEO of Eat Real, an EWG coalition partner.
California leads the way
California is changing the national conversation about food safety and school nutrition.
With strong bipartisan support, over the past two years the state has enacted two Gabriel-authored landmark food laws.
The California School Food Safety Act, signed into law in 2024, bans six harmful food dyes from being served in public schools. It followed a 2023 state law banning the manufacture, distribution or sale of food containing the chemicals Red Dye No. 3, propyl paraben, brominated vegetable oil and potassium bromate.
California has long been a bellwether state for public health protections. Now similar actions are sweeping the country, with food chemical bills introduced, debated and in some cases enacted in states from Arizona to Vermont, including Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania.
"Poor nutrition in childhood, predominantly due to processed foods, which are high in added sugars and low in nutrient quality, is a major and modifiable factor contributing to life-long risk for chronic diseases, including obesity, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and heart disease and also affects learning and classroom performance," said Michael Goran, Ph.D., and program director for nutrition and obesity at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Goran is also professor and vice chair for research in the department of pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
Newsom issued an executive order in January directing California agencies to look for new ways to minimize the harms of UPF consumption and reduce the purchase of soda, candy and other types of UPF, including those that contain artificial dye.
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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
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Original text here: https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2025/09/california-lawmakers-pass-first-nation-bill-protect-kids-harmful
[Category: Environment]
California Lawmakers Approve Groundbreaking Bill Banning Harmful Ultra-Processed Food in Schools, Bill Now Heads to Governor Newsom
YONKERS, New York, Sept. 13 -- Consumer Reports posted the following news release on Sept. 12, 2025:
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California lawmakers approve groundbreaking bill banning harmful ultra-processed food in schools, bill now heads to Governor Newsom
AB 1264 directs California to identify especially harmful ultra-processed foods to be phased out of schools
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SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Assembly approved legislation today with widespread bipartisan support to ban unhealthy ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in public schools. AB 1264, authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, establishes a definition of
... Show Full Article
YONKERS, New York, Sept. 13 -- Consumer Reports posted the following news release on Sept. 12, 2025:
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California lawmakers approve groundbreaking bill banning harmful ultra-processed food in schools, bill now heads to Governor Newsom
AB 1264 directs California to identify especially harmful ultra-processed foods to be phased out of schools
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SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Assembly approved legislation today with widespread bipartisan support to ban unhealthy ultra-processed foods (UPFs) in public schools. AB 1264, authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, establishes a definition ofUPFs and directs experts at the California Department of Public Health to identify a subcategory of especially harmful ones to be phased out of public schools by 2035.
The bill was approved unanimously by the California Senate yesterday and now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom, who issued an executive order in January to address the harms posed by ultra processed food. The groundbreaking bill was co-sponsored by Consumer Reports, the Environmental Working Group and Eat Real.
"Foods served in schools should fuel kids' bodies and brains for learning, but harmful ultra-processed foods do the opposite" said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports. "They offer little nutritional value and are deliberately engineered to make them hard to resist, which encourages unhealthy eating habits and overconsumption."
Ronholm continued, "Students should be provided with healthier options at school instead of ultra-processed food that puts their health at risk. This bill will help protect California kids and establish an important new standard for the rest of the nation by getting harmful ultra-processed food out of our schools."
Recent research has linked diets that include a lot of harmful ultra-processed foods -- such as soft drinks and packaged snacks -- to serious health risks, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Type 2 diabetes. An estimated 67 percent of the calories in food eaten by children, according to a study published in JAMA in 2021 (https://zwly9k6z.r.us-east-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fwww.ama-assn.org%2Fdelivering-care%2Fpublic-health%2Fwhat-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-ultraprocessed-foods/1/010001994027b614-810ea09f-1277-4f69-a7ec-fafbadf4de6f-000000/Bpkt4n179IGW5gLQruaShl6mar8=443).
The bill defines ultra-processed foods as those "high in" saturated fat, or added sugar, or sodium, (or has a non-sugar sweetener), and contains one or more of certain industrial ingredients, including colors, flavors, sweeteners, emulsifiers, and thickening agents. Raw agricultural products, minimally processed foods, and pasteurized milk are exempt from the definition of UPFs. .
Experts at the California Department of Public Health would then identify a subcategory of "UPFs of concern" to be phased out of school foods, based upon the following factors:
* whether the substance is banned, restricted, or subject to warnings in other states or outside the U.S.;
* whether the substance, based upon peer-reviewed evidence, is linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, developmental harms, reproductive harms, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, or other health harms associated with UPF consumption;
* whether the substance is hyper-palatable or may contribute to food addiction;
* whether the food meets the FDA definition for "healthy," and
* whether the food is a UPF due to a "common natural additive.
California's ban on the worst ultra-processed food from school meals is the latest example of the state's national leadership on food safety and school nutrition. In the last two years, the legislature has enacted a ban on Red Dye 3 and other toxic chemicals in food sold in the state and passed a ban on six other harmful synthetic dyes in school foods. Both bills were introduced by Assemblymember Gabriel and co-sponsored by Consumer Reports and the Environmental Working Group.
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Original text here: https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/press_release/california-lawmakers-approve-groundbreaking-bill-banning-harmful-ultra-processed-food-in-schools-bill-now-heads-to-governor-newsom/
[Category: Business]
