Members of the U.S. House this week called for the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture to ensure the final Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) are based on sound nutritional science and adhere to the DGA charter authorized by Congress.

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-04) and 70 House colleagues sent the letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell in response to the 2015 Dietary Guideline’s Advisory Committee’s (DGAC) report that some say “exceeds the scope of its charge by straying from purely nutritional evidence and venturing into areas like sustainability and tax policy.”

“The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee greatly overstepped its bounds in this report,” Hartzler said. “The notion that the recommendations in this report were made based on selected data and excluded valuable nutritional information is appalling. As someone who taught nutritional science for 11 years, I am disturbed by the suggestion that a quality source of protein like red meat shouldn’t be a part of a healthy diet. Flagrant claims like that are cause for concern and call into question the validity of this report, not to mention the threat they pose to the integrity of the dietary guidelines as a whole.”

Groups that support this letter include: American Farm Bureau Federation, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Pork Producer’s Council, National Restaurant Association, Livestock Marketing Association, North American Meat Institute, National Turkey Federation, and American Beverage Association.