There are four pieces of legislation in Congress right now that people with celiac disease should know about.
That is important for what each individual bill could accomplish.
But I think it is also important for a much bigger reason:
People with celiac disease are finally being heard.
For years, we have talked about the same problems.
Why does wheat have to be clearly identified on a food label, while barley and rye can require considerably more detective work?
Why can it be so difficult to determine whether an ingredient in a medication was derived from a gluten-containing grain?
Why do people with celiac disease spend so much time standing in grocery-store aisles, searching manufacturer websites, calling pharmacies and trying to interpret information that should be easier to find?
Now those problems are showing up in actual federal legislation.
There are currently four bills taking somewhat different approaches to food labeling, gluten-containing grains, medications and celiac disease itself.
Here is what they would do — and why they matter.
1. FASTER Act of 2026 — H.R. 9988
The Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research Act of 2026, or FASTER Act of 2026, was introduced in the House on July 30, 2026.
The bill would change the federal definition of a major food allergen by replacing wheat with “gluten-containing grain.”
Under the bill, that definition would include:
- wheat
- rye
- barley
- oats
- crossbred hybrids such as triticale
You can read the full bill text from the U.S. Government Publishing Office here:
https://www.govinfo.gov/link/bills/119/hr/9988?link-type=pdf
The legislation would apply those changes to food entering interstate commerce beginning one year after enactment.
But the FASTER Act goes beyond labeling
This is one of the most interesting parts of the bill.
H.R. 9988 would also require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit a report to Congress addressing celiac disease.
That report would examine areas including:
- the prevalence of celiac disease in the United States
- gaps in celiac disease surveillance and data collection
- development of better diagnostic tools
- methods of reducing risks associated with living with celiac disease
- prevention
- and development of new therapies to prevent, treat, cure or manage celiac disease.
That is significant.
This is not simply Congress talking about putting another word on a food package.
It is Congress explicitly discussing diagnosis, prevalence, risk reduction and therapeutic development for celiac disease.
And yes — the FASTER Act includes oats
This will probably be the most controversial part of the legislation within the celiac community.
Oats do not inherently contain the same gluten proteins found in wheat, barley and rye. Yet oats create a real-world complication because of agricultural and manufacturing cross-contact, and some people with celiac disease also appear to react to oat avenin.
The proposed legislation handles that problem by legally including oats within its definition of “gluten-containing grain” for the purposes of the bill.
That doesn’t mean Congress has discovered that oats suddenly contain wheat gluten.
It means the legislation is proposing a broader consumer-protection framework.
There are legitimate questions about how that language would interact with existing U.S. gluten-free labeling rules, which currently allow appropriately produced oats in foods labeled gluten-free.
That discussion is worth having.
But so is the larger question:
Wouldn’t it be useful to have clearer, better information about oats instead of leaving patients to sort through competing claims on their own?
2. Celiac Safety Act of 2026 — H.R. 9048
The Celiac Safety Act of 2026 takes a somewhat narrower approach.
Introduced by Representatives Emanuel Cleaver and Betty McCollum, the bill would amend federal food law to include gluten-containing grains in the definition of a major food allergen. It defines those grains as:
- wheat
- rye
- barley
- and crossbred hybrids such as triticale.
Read the official bill information here:
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119hr9048ih
The practical issue this addresses is incredibly simple.
Wheat is already protected. Barley and rye are not treated the same way.
Under current U.S. allergen law, wheat is one of the major food allergens that must be clearly disclosed.
Barley and rye can also trigger the autoimmune response in celiac disease, but they do not currently receive equivalent major-allergen labeling protection.
The Celiac Disease Foundation explains that this forces people with celiac disease to continue searching ingredient lists for less obvious sources of barley and rye.
Why this matters
Imagine being able to pick up a packaged food and identify the grains that matter to celiac disease using the same basic disclosure system already used for major allergens.
No memorizing that malt usually means barley.
No wondering whether an unfamiliar ingredient could have come from rye.
No pretending wheat is the only gluten-containing grain that matters.
That doesn’t eliminate every gluten-free decision.
But it could eliminate some completely unnecessary ones.
3. Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2026 — H.R. 8385
The Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2026 is much broader than celiac disease.
It would overhaul several aspects of food labeling, including front-of-package nutrition information, ingredient-list readability, online food-label information and consumer-facing disclosures.
Official bill information:
https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/BILLS-119hr8385ih
The bill was introduced by Representative Frank Pallone with Representative Rosa DeLauro and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
But buried inside that much larger bill is something very important for people with celiac disease.
The legislation specifically creates labeling provisions for gluten-containing grains.
It defines those grains as:
- wheat
- rye
- barley
- and their crossbred hybrids.
It would require information regarding gluten-containing grains to be conveyed to consumers alongside major-allergen information.
For packaged foods, that information would appear immediately after or adjacent to the ingredient list. For certain nonpackaged foods sold at retail, the information could be displayed on signage next to the food.
That alone is interesting.
But the bill goes farther.
It would also create a searchable food-label database
Under H.R. 8385, manufacturers or importers of packaged foods would submit label information to FDA, including:
- Nutrition Facts
- ingredient lists
- images of principal display panels
- major allergens
- gluten-containing grains
- and other required labeling information.
The bill directs FDA to make that information available in a public database that consumers could search and sort.
Think about that for a moment.
How often have you stood in a grocery store trying to enlarge a blurry product photo online because the manufacturer’s website doesn’t provide an ingredient list?
How often have you searched three websites trying to find the current label?
A standardized, searchable source of food-label information would have implications far beyond celiac disease.
But for people who make purchasing decisions based on ingredients every single day?
That could be enormously useful.
The bill also addresses online shopping
H.R. 8385 would require food sold online to make required label information available before purchase and would specify prominent display of nutrition, ingredient and allergen information.
That increasingly matters.
We don’t only read food labels while standing in grocery stores anymore.
We buy groceries from apps, websites and delivery services.
The information we need to make a safe decision should travel with the food.
More information from the bill’s sponsors:
4. ADINA Act — H.R. 3821
And then we get to one of my personal favorites.
MEDICATIONS.
The Allergen Disclosure In Non-food Articles Act, better known as the ADINA Act, addresses something patients have complained about for years:
Why is it sometimes so difficult to determine what is in our medicine?
H.R. 3821 would amend federal law so that a drug intended for human use containing an ingredient that is — or is derived directly or indirectly from — a major food allergen or gluten-containing grain would have to disclose that information on the label.
The bill specifically identifies gluten-containing grains as including:
- wheat
- barley
- rye
- and their crossbred hybrids.
Read the official bill text:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr3821ih/html/BILLS-119hr3821ih.htm
The bill was introduced June 6, 2025, and remains part of the current 119th Congress.
Why this matters
People with celiac disease routinely encounter a completely different information system when they leave the grocery store and enter the pharmacy.
Food labels are regulated one way.
Drug labels operate differently.
Inactive ingredients can change between manufacturers.
A medication’s source ingredients may not be obvious from the name appearing on a pharmacy label.
That can leave patients, pharmacists and doctors hunting for information that ought to be straightforward.
The ADINA Act would require a medication label to state that the drug contains such an ingredient and identify the ingredient — including, when applicable, the specific type of gluten-containing grain.
This should not require detective work.
People aren’t asking pharmaceutical manufacturers to guarantee that every medication on Earth is gluten-free.
They are asking for information.
Tell us what is in it.
Then let patients and their medical teams make informed decisions.
That is not an unreasonable request.
Four Bills. But This Story Is Bigger Than Four Bills.
There are important differences between these proposals.
They don’t all define the problem exactly the same way.
They don’t all address the same products.
They don’t all use the same regulatory mechanism.
And the question of oats in particular deserves careful scientific and regulatory discussion.
But zoom out for a moment.
Four different bills are attempting to solve problems connected to living with celiac disease.
That is the part I don’t want us to miss.
For a very long time, the primary public message around celiac disease has essentially been:
Don’t eat gluten.
That dramatically understates the burden of the disease.
Living safely with celiac disease requires navigating an enormous system of food manufacturing, ingredient labeling, restaurants, pharmacies, healthcare, testing and risk assessment.
These bills recognize pieces of that burden.
And Congress Isn’t the Only Place Celiac Disease Is Getting Attention
There is another change happening at the same time.
Drug development.
There is currently no FDA-approved medication that replaces the gluten-free diet as treatment for celiac disease.
But the therapeutic landscape looks very different than it did even a decade ago.
FDA has issued celiac-specific draft guidance for pharmaceutical companies developing drugs intended as adjunctive treatments to a gluten-free diet, including recommendations around clinical-trial design, eligibility, efficacy measures and safety assessments.
FDA guidance:
And there are multiple investigational approaches being studied.
ClinicalTrials.gov currently lists studies involving potential therapies targeting different parts of the celiac disease process.
Examples include:
TAK-101, being studied for its ability to reduce gluten-related immune activation:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04530123
KAN-101, studied in a Phase 1b/2 program in people with celiac disease on a gluten-free diet:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05574010
VTP-1000, evaluated in a first-in-human study in adults with celiac disease:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06310291
TEV-53408, being studied for its ability to reduce gluten-induced intestinal injury:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06807463
And the Celiac Disease Foundation is currently highlighting additional studies and recruiting opportunities, including investigational drugs in Phase 1b and Phase 2 development.
Federal Research Attention Is Growing Too
At the 2026 National Celiac Disease Policy Symposium, the Celiac Disease Foundation reported that the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs have active 2026 funding opportunities for celiac disease research, spanning early discovery through clinical trials.
Even more importantly, patient advocates have voting seats in the grant-review process.
That means people affected by celiac disease are participating directly in decisions about which research receives federal funding.
That is what I mean when I say this moment is bigger than four bills.
Don’t Mistake Gluten-Free Fatigue for a Lack of Celiac Progress
I think this is especially important right now.
The cultural obsession with “gluten-free” is not what it was ten years ago.
You may feel that when you walk into restaurants.
You may feel it when someone rolls their eyes at another dietary request.
You may feel it when accommodations that once seemed to be expanding suddenly feel harder to find.
But gluten-free as a cultural trend and celiac disease as a medical condition are not the same thing.
And they do not have to move in the same direction.
The public may be less fascinated by gluten-free living.
Meanwhile:
Congress is discussing celiac-related labeling.
FDA has established a framework for celiac drug development.
Researchers are running clinical trials.
Federal research funding is being directed toward celiac disease.
Patients are participating in research-priority decisions.
That isn’t fading recognition.
That is growing recognition.
What Happens Next Depends Partly on Us
Bills don’t move simply because they are good ideas.
Legislators need to know their constituents care about them.
You do not have to understand every subsection of federal food law to advocate.
You simply have to explain why the issue matters.
Tell your representative:
I have celiac disease.
Tell them what it is like to spend ten minutes examining a food label because barley isn’t clearly disclosed.
Tell them about the medication you had to research.
Tell them about calling a manufacturer.
Tell them about checking a pharmacy database.
Tell them about trying to identify whether malt means barley.
Tell them about doing this again tomorrow.
And the day after that.
And the day after that.
Then ask them to support legislation that gives people with celiac disease clearer information.
How to Find Your Representative
You can find your member of the U.S. House of Representatives here:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
You can find contact information for U.S. Senators here:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
You can also follow advocacy updates from major celiac organizations.
Celiac Disease Foundation advocacy:
https://celiac.org/get-involved/advocate/
The National Celiac Association has also published a useful breakdown comparing the four current bills. I recommend reading their analysis alongside the actual legislation.
Four Bills. One Loud Message.
None of these proposals solves every problem facing people with celiac disease.
But that isn’t what makes this moment exciting.
The problems are being named.
The burden is being recognized.
Legislation is being written.
Research is being funded.
Drug development is moving.
Patients are being included.
There is still enormous work to do.
But do not mistake the fading novelty of “gluten-free” for fading progress in celiac disease.
People with celiac disease are finally being heard.
Now we need to make sure they keep hearing us.
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