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Capitol Hill and White House seize on baby formula shortage

After the national level shortage of infant formula began to dominate the headlines, and after some Republicans began publicly demanding more action from the Biden administration, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the administration has been working on the subject of the formula for “months.”

The race with children’s formula follows the closing of a sun Abbott installation in Michigan where much of the country’s formula is made. Abbott is the largest formula maker in the country, and 40% of the country’s formula is currently sold out.

Senior government officials told reporters in a call on Thursday that their attention for months to the shortage is the reason why the production of infant formulas in the last four weeks has equaled at least the production of the previous four weeks at the closure of the Abbott plant. But critics are wondering why the shortage has become so severe and why the government is only taking certain actions now, if the administration had already been tackling the problem aggressively.

President Biden has not ruled out invoking the Defense Production Act to try to increase formula production, and the administration is also expanding the range of formula products that can be purchased with the benefits of WIC. He The FDA will announce that expansions on foreign-made formula imports next week.

Mr Biden, who was asked by a journalist on Friday if his administration should have taken these steps earlier, replied: “If we had been better mental readers, I guess we could have done it. But we moved as fast as “We need to move with caution and speed, because we need to make sure that what we receive is a first-class product.”

On Friday morning, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that the House will introduce a bill next week to grant emergency authority to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) to address disruptions and withdrawals from the supply chain relaxing certain regulations that are unrelated to product safety.

“Ensuring that every beautiful baby has the nutrition he needs is a matter of the baby’s life and development. While it is essential that we make sure this problem never happens again, right now babies are crying and babies are crying. they are hungry, so we need to take urgent action to protect their health and well – being, “Pelosi said.

Two other Democratic-led House committees, the House Appropriations Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committees, are planning hearings. The House Oversight Committee sent letters on Thursday to the four major formula makers: Abbott Nutrition, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle USA and Perrigo Company, asking them what steps they have taken to increase supply, reduce prices, prevent rising prices and when to expect to have enough supply to meet demand. The committee requested a response and briefing before May 26.

“What we are trying to find out is how do we solve these problems as soon as possible? How do we increase supply? And how do we avoid rising prices at all costs? Because that is also a problem,” said Raja Krishnamoorthi. . citing reports that parents pay three or four times the normal costs of the formula. He called on the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies to look into market price increases.

Krishnamoorthi, who chairs an economic and consumer policy subcommittee, wrote to the FDA in late March asking why the agency had waited five months to warn consumers after a life-threatening Cronobacter sakazakii infection went away. relate to a contaminated formula manufactured at an Abbott facility in September.

On Thursday, Republican Reps. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma and Randy Feenstra of Iowa introduced a bill called the Formula Act that directs the FDA to communicate clearer standards for regulating infant formula and applying those standards to infant formula. foreign to make it easier to import. Most of the formula consumed in the U.S. is produced nationally, in part because of the strict regulatory barriers and import tariffs imposed on the foreign formula. The two lawmakers joined a dozen House Republicans at a news conference and called on the administration to do more.

“Biden and the FDA had to work directly with manufacturers and hospitals to make sure we have an adequate supply of baby formula and make sure parents know where to go if the shelves are empty in the store,” he said. the representative Elise Stefanik. a New York Republican. “This is not a third world country. This should never happen in the United States of America.”

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has also written to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to express concern that the two agencies are not moving fast enough to investigate the formulas. contaminated children and to work for more options on the market.


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