Based on the Committee's review, by publishing data and information gained from the AIH study without authorization, it appears that Synergy and the SRP members violated their contract obligations with the federal government.
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has asked U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to hold federal contractors accountable for what he calls the unauthorized publication of government-owned data from an alcohol and health study tied to the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
In a letter sent September 24, 2026, Comer raised concerns that Synergy Enterprises, Inc. and members of a Scientific Review Panel violated their federal contracts by publishing government-owned information and data from the study without authorization. He called on HHS to review Synergy's conduct and pursue remedial, disciplinary, contractual or legal action, including potential debarment from future federal contracts.
"Based on the Committee's review, by publishing data and information gained from the AIH study without authorization, it appears that Synergy and the SRP members violated their contract obligations with the federal government," Comer wrote, referring to the study on alcohol intake and health.
The study at the center
The alcohol intake and health (AIH) study was commissioned under the Biden Administration by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD), convened by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within HHS. SAMHSA contracted with Synergy Enterprises to complete the study, and Synergy entered into consulting agreements with subcontractors to serve on a Scientific Review Panel.
In January 2026, the Oversight Committee released a report alleging the Biden Administration intended the study to reach a predetermined conclusion and recruited scientists it expected to develop research supporting that conclusion. The Trump Administration declined to finalize and publish the ICCPUD study over concerns about its process. However, panel members and other authors published information and data obtained through their federally contracted work in outside scientific journals in November 2025 and June 2026, in what Comer described as an effort to pressure the federal government to revise the Dietary Guidelines based on the findings.
Contract terms
"SAMSHA's contract with Synergy clearly specifies that all information and data derived from the work done under the AIH study is government property," Comer wrote. "The subcontractors also knew that all information and data derived for their work on the AIH study was federal government property." He added that the study was "wastefully duplicative" of research already being conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at the direction of Congress.
The committee requested a staff-level briefing and asked HHS to review the actions of Synergy and the individual panel members. For the wine and alcohol industries, the stakes are the alcohol consumption guidelines in the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which shape federal nutrition policy and, by extension, public-health messaging that affects drinking behavior for years.
The controversy also sits against a shifting political backdrop for alcohol science. Successive guideline cycles have faced lobbying from both public-health groups pushing for lower recommended limits and industry groups disputing the underlying epidemiology, and the debarment threat raises the temperature for any contractor doing federal nutrition research. Whether HHS acts on Comer's request will signal how the current administration wants the next Dietary Guidelines written, and whose science it trusts.