Image Credit: @repreneau / X & Canva
Tennessee Conservative News Staff –
A Massachusetts-based oral health advocacy group has been exposed for meddling in Tennessee legislation after a video from their political initiative arm was discovered to include updates from a paid lobbyist retained to help kill Tennessee bills aiming to remove fluoride from public water supplies.
According to their website, the CareQuest Institute “Champions Oral Health Transformation” by working through policy advocacy, philanthropy, data analysis, and innovation to “create a [health] system that is accessible, equitable, and integrated,” with focuses on “people of color, those living in rural communities, people with disabilities, older adults, and other historically underserved groups have been left behind”.
One of the ways CareQuest works to achieve its goals is through the Oral Health Progress & Equity Network (OPEN) initiative whose members work to “align on policy priorities” and “use their unique experiences, knowledge, and skills to make oral health care more affordable and accessible — especially for underserved populations.”
Recently, an OPEN training and resource video divulged just how widespread their initiatives reach, with updates being provided by contracted lobbyists in Arizona and Tennessee working against defluoridation legislation in both states.
***Note – the video has since been removed from YouTube (linked above) but can still be viewed HERE.
Reed Cook, contracted by CoreQuest from the Mississippi-based lobbying firm Capitol Resources, explains how they defeated HB2396/SB0162 this year by shifting the conversation away from health concerns or individual choice to a “local control” argument instead.
“These bills have been around the last ten years, generally they have not picked up much momentum. This year was a little bit different, because at the beginning of session we had a visit from RFK Jr. He spotlighted the bills and supported those bills, so all the sudden they started gaining quite a bit of momentum,” he noted.
“I think a lot of the science-based arguments confused a lot of members,” he continued. “The water got muddied, but where we found success was leaning on local control. And in Tennessee, there is a mechanism to where local communities, if they choose to remove fluoridation, they can, they just have to notify all of their citizens in the community and provide an opportunity for public comment. And that is why there is [a push] to get a statewide ban because in a lot of communities [in Tennessee] these policies are getting defeated.”
As Cook remarked, several local communities have been pushing for their water or utility boards to remove fluoride, but their efforts have gone largely ignored or been actively suppressed, with a few exceptions.
During testimony earlier in the session on the fluoride bills, a long-time Tennessee water utility operator also explained that not only is the local process to defluoridate not as simple as Cook would make it sound, but the process of adding fluoride to the water is dangerous and hazardous for the operators themselves.
Cook also discussed the sponsors of one of the two bills run this session, Sen. Joey Hensley, a doctor, and Rep. Michele Reneau, who has been diligently working to enact legislation to “Make Tennessee Healthy Again”.
“Reneau has been everything MAHA in Tennessee so far, she also had bills to remove red dye from school food, so she’s really been kind of the forefront of trying to push everything in line with Make America Healthy Again,” he said.
Finally, he acknowledged that “While this was defeated, I think this will come back again next year and will be very important, probably, to be messaging on this all throughout the year and making sure to really highlight the scientific arguments in Tennessee so that once it gets down to the legislative session, things are moving fast, that there is not as much confusion.”
Since its discovery, Rep. Reneau has been actively sharing the video to show how dedicated many outside forces are in working against conservative legislation in Tennessee and emphasizing her belief that while “local governments are often best positioned to make decisions for their communities,” the state has a responsibility to step in “when people are potentially being exposed to something harmful- and they do not have true individual choice.”
“Let’s be honest. This issue has never been about ‘local control.’ Local governments deciding whether to add chemicals to your water is not individual choice. You still don’t get to opt out. You don’t get informed consent. You don’t get a say over what goes into your body. That’s not freedom—that’s something being done to you, not by you. When industry lobbyists say they want to keep decisions ‘local,’ what they’re really saying is: ‘We’d rather fight this battle in dozens of smaller places than have the people of Tennessee decide it statewide.’ This is about your right to make decisions about your own health. Not mine. Not a lobbyist’s. Not a local board’s. Yours,” she wrote.
Reneau also confirmed she fully intends to bring the legislation again next year, “stronger, cleaner, and more prepared,” as she is “proud to stand for MAHA” and the rights of Tennesseans to have “true individual choice”.
