President Biden is Pushed to Act on Baby Formula Shortage

The shortage of baby formula has sparked outrage across the country, prompting President Biden to take action.

Brian Deese, the Biden administration’s director of the National Economic Council, joined Geoff Bennett this week to discuss some concerns, including the issue on baby formula being in a shortage.

“The shortage has been a serious problem for months now and has gotten worse during the spring. Store shelves are about 40 percent short of the formula they normally sell. That means prices in some places are going up for what’s left. And, in some cases, we have heard of parents driving hours to find what they need or even more serious measures like watering down baby formula, which experts say is dangerous,” said Deese.

The president has announced new measures to address this, but there are important questions about how effective this will be.

Deese added, “President Biden, as you well know, he invoked the Defense Production Act, which requires suppliers to provide baby formula ingredients to those companies that produce it before it goes to other companies.”

He’s also authorized this new program called Operation Fly Formula to speed up imports, said the director of the National Economic Council.

So what’s the expectation for how quickly infant formula will appear back on shelves, be widely available?

“We need to focus on a couple of things to make that happen. The first is to increase production. We need to produce — manufacture, to produce more formula. And, as you said, the president invoked the Defense Production Act to make sure that the manufacturers of formula in the United States have all of the supplies and the components that they need to get to 100 percent production as quickly as possible. So that’s happening right now,” explained Deese.

“The second is, we need to get more formula that’s outside the United States that we know is safe into the United States. And that’s what the Operation Fly Formula is about, the Defense Department, directed by the president, to use commercial cargo to bring that product into the United States,” he continued.

“These steps are happening in real time. We’re in contact with both the manufacturers and the retailers overnight, through the day, and we will be into the weekend. And we anticipate that these steps will help to get that product produced and moving quicker than it would otherwise move,” he also said.

The House on Wednesday passed two bills aimed at addressing a nationwide shortage of infant formula.

The main piece of legislation, sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), would provide $28 million in emergency funding to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase inspections of formula made at foreign plants and to guard against any future shortages by ensuring the agency is prepared for supply chain disruptions.

The shortages have left many parents desperate and lawmakers scrambling to find a solution to put formula back on store shelves.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.