Senator Klobuchar Urges CDC, FDA to Restore Food Safety Programs Amid Cyclosporiasis Outbreak
Editor's note: This story has been edited to include the latest outbreak updates, listed chronologically at the bottom of the article. Alternatively, you can read the most recent coverage here.
Senator Amy Klobuchar (Democrat-Minnesota) has called on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore funding and staffing for federal and state food safety programs, arguing that recent reductions have weakened the nation's ability to respond to the current surge in cyclosporiasis cases across the U.S., including a large outbreak cluster in the Midwest.
In a letter to CDC and FDA dated July 14, 2026, Sen. Klobuchar urged the agencies to reinstate support for several food safety and public health programs, including the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), Food Emergency Response Network (FERN), Public Health Infrastructure Grants, and Preventive Services Block Grants.
"As a currently uncontrolled, large foodborne [illness] outbreak across the country continues, cuts to these programs are impacting our nation's ability to prevent, detect, and contain foodborne illnesses and protect public health," Sen. Klobuchar wrote.
The senator argued that the Trump Administration's decision to scale back CDC’s FoodNet surveillance last year—cutting Cyclospora from the list of pathogens included in the program—and significant staffing reductions have diminished national foodborne illness surveillance capacity. She also cited the April 2025 suspension of FDA's FERN following workforce reductions, as well as the termination of congressionally appropriated Public Health Infrastructure Grants and Preventive Services Block Grants that support state health department staffing, laboratory capacity, diagnostics, and disease surveillance.
Preventing foodborne illnesses and rapidly detecting and responding to outbreaks requires coordinated efforts among CDC, FDA, and state public health and agriculture agencies. However, "the recent actions taken by the administration have significantly weakened federal and state defenses and undermined nationwide coordination against foodborne illnesses, particularly when there is no longer a central location for reporting and comparing data across state lines," Sen. Klobuchar wrote.
Sen. Klobuchar urged CDC and FDA to fully restore the affected programs and continue supporting state public health agencies with the resources needed to detect, investigate, and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks. The full letter can be read here.
Update, July 17, 2026: FDA announced an outbreak cluster including 1,644 people across Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia. Shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations and sourced from a single Mexican supplier has been identified as the vehicle of infection. Read more.
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Update, July 20, 2026: Taylor Farms of Mexico has been officially named as the supplier of implicated iceberg lettuce products to firms like Taco Bell and Walmart. Michigan is now reporting more than 5,000 cyclosporiasis infections in the state since June. Read more.
Update, July 21, 2026: As of July 20, Michigan reports 6,571 cyclosporiasis infections and Northwest Ohio has seen 2,029 cases. Read more.
Update, July 23, 2026: CDC has reported 4,173 laboratory-confirmed, domestic cases of cyclosporiasis connected to the five-state outbreak, with an additional 7,400 cases under investigation. Michigan is now reporting 7,171 cases.
FDA has added a new Cyclospora outbreak of 72 cases to its CORE Investigation table.
Several senators have written letters to U.S. Health Secretary Kennedy urging Cyclospora surveillance to be restored to the FoodNet program. Experts say that FoodNet cuts, although problematic, did not cause the current outbreak. Read more.
Update, July 24, 2026: The outbreak linked to Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce has been expanded to nine states. More than 1,900 people infected with Cyclospora have reported exposure to Taco Bell, and there have been at least 98 hospitalizations. Michigan and Northwestern Ohio report 7,664 and 2,380 cases, respectively.FDA is currently investigating three other cyclosporiasis outbreaks aside from the nine-state cluster, comprising eight, ten, 18, and 72 cases. A food vehicle of infection has not yet been identified in any of these outbreaks. Read more.
Update, August 5, 2026: CDC has updated its total laboratory-confirmed case count of cyclosporiasis in the U.S. to 10,468 illnesses and 517 hospitalizations, as of August 3. CDC has also updated the number of states reporting cases to 47. The agency noted on August 4 that an additional 12,255 cases require further analysis and have not yet been laboratory confirmed or determined to be part of the U.S. domestic outbreak.
Additionally, CDC has expanded its list of states specifically associated with the Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce outbreak to 15, up from nine, and is reporting 6,358 illnesses, 278 hospitalizations, and two deaths associated with this outbreak. Affected states now include Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
