US President Joe Biden took urgent action on Wednesday to address the nationwide shortage of infant formula, invoking the Defense Production Act to increase production and creating a “Fly Formula” to deploy Department of Defense aircraft to speed up shipments of formula milk to the United States from abroad.
The moves are Biden’s first major initiative to respond to a crisis that has sowed fear and frustration among parents across the country and prompted Republicans and Democrats alike to demand action. The New York Times.
His decision came at a time when the milk shortage was threatening to become a political as well as a public health disaster for the administration, according to the newspaper, and coincided with the eve of the first congressional hearing, with Dr. Robert Califf, head of the Food and Drug Administration, discussing what is being done to respond to the crisis.
The White House announced its plan just hours before the House of Representatives took action, approving an emergency infusion of $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration and a bill to ease restrictions on the type of formula that can be purchased through the federal food aid program for women and children.
Under the plan put forward by the White House on Wednesday evening, government agencies could apply to use Defense Department commercial aircraft to bring infant formula from abroad and fly it to the United States and put it on shelves more quickly.
On Monday, the FDA announced that it would streamline approvals so more foreign companies can make such shipments.
Administration officials said the Department of Defense will also use its contracts with commercial air freight lines to transport milk products from abroad, bypassing normal air freight routes to expedite import and distribution, as the administration did with medical supplies during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I know parents across the country are worried about finding enough baby formula to feed their kids – as a parent and as a grandfather, I know how stressful that is,” Biden said in a video posted to Twitter.
I’m taking two new steps to increase baby formula supply:
– Invoking the Defense Production Act to increase domestic production
– Launching Operation Fly Formula to use federal planes to fly formula in from abroadWe’re making sure safe formula gets to all who need it. pic.twitter.com/lnkxsaCY6T
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 18, 2022
The president had directed the administration to “do everything in its power to ensure that there is enough safe infant formula and that it quickly reaches families who need it most.”
Last week, Biden said the infant formula crisis was his top priority, promising parents would see more products on shelves in “weeks or less.”
Enacting the Defense Production Act — a Korean War-era law designed to allow the president to require companies to take action in the interests of national defense — would allow the administration to force suppliers of infant formula ingredients to prioritize the needs of milk manufacturers over others, helping to increase production and speed up the supply chain, officials said. .
Several members of Congress, especially Democrats facing tough re-election races, have in recent days called on Biden to enact the law to ease the shortfall.
The newspaper quoted a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying that it may take some time for companies to benefit from the Defense Department’s offer to ship the formula.
But the official added that Biden is determined to do whatever he can to reduce even a few days of manufacturing and distribution of the formula.
In recent days, lawmakers have announced plans to bring administration and industry officials to Capitol Hill to testify, and have demanded answers from Biden’s team about how to allow the milk shortage to develop into a crisis.
On Wednesday evening, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved bipartisan legislation that would give the federal government emergency authority to expand the types of milk that can be purchased with benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
The House passed the legislation by 231 votes to 192 on Wednesday evening, and it faced an even tougher turnout amid opposition from Republicans, who said it was a “blank check for an agency that failed to prevent a major crisis.”
Democrats defended the spending measure, noting that it would require the agency to send weekly reports to Congress outlining how the money will be spent.