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BABY FORMULA Biden invokes Defense Production Act to boost baby formula production 
A sign advises customers at a Target in Stevensville, Md., that they can only purchase limited quantities of toddler nutritional drink mix this week. President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act on Wednesday in an effort to boost production of baby formula. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/05/18/house-formula-shortage-abbott/ Burgess COMMENTARY I have listened to people in the USA and elsewhere lauding the efficieny of the modern economy, and specifically the modern economy driven by capitalism and a free market. And, to be honest, they have a point. The system is better than the one that revolutionaries imposed on the Soviet Union, but the American system is nowhere near as good as it could be if the objectives were more nuanced. Making the maximum of profit for investors is not the only thing that should be going on. The great economists of yesteryear did not think that 4 companies dominating a market was a good thing, and for many years there was widespread opposition to monopolies and oligopolies. Far too many parts of the modern economy are dominated by very few very large companies. It is decades since anti-trust was a thing !!!!!! The current system is fragile. In this particular case some babies will pay a high price in terms of less healthy development ... and the companies will eventually coast on as if nothing has happened. Peter Burgess | ||
Biden invokes Defense Production Act to boost baby formula production
The House also prepared to vote Wednesday on bills that include $28 million in additional funding for the FDA
Written by Tony Romm
Updated May 18, 2022 at 7:14 p.m. EDT | Published May 18, 2022 at 3:12 p.m. EDT
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President Biden on Wednesday invoked the Defense Production Act to address a nationwide shortage in baby formula, marking a major attempt to ramp up domestic manufacturing rapidly as parents are scrambling and store shelves are running bare.
The White House said the directive requires the suppliers of key formula ingredients to prioritize the delivery of those resources to formula producers, adding that the administration would simultaneously launch a new operation to ensure faster flights of imports using Defense Department air cargo contacts.
The moves reflected the magnitude of the current shortage, which has seen some parents driving for miles on end to locate formula, including specialty products that are critical to infants’ health. The U.S. government previously tapped the same 1950 law in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, aiming to ensure the speedy production of key equipment as the crisis worsened.
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The White House actions are part of a broader scramble throughout Washington, where the House will vote as soon as Wednesday evening on two measures also meant to address the shortage. Democrats have readied bills that aim to provide new support to low-income Americans while allocating $28 million in new funding to the Food and Drug Administration, hoping to ease the supply crunch, prevent future disruptions and enhance safety inspections in the wake of a major plant shutdown in Michigan over sanitation concerns.
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The closure of that plant, operated by Abbott, also drew fresh scrutiny from top Democrats on Wednesday. Party lawmakers including Sens. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) fired off sharply critical letters questioning the company’s business practices — including its decision to spend recent record revenue on stock buybacks rather than safety improvements.
“As Abbott spent billions buying back its own stock, it appears that it failed to make necessary repairs to fix a critical manufacturing plant of infant formula located in Michigan,” charged Wyden, the chairman of the tax-focused Senate Finance Committee, in a letter to the company.
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Vicky Assardo, a spokeswoman for Abbott, stressed in response that the company is a “responsible and transparent taxpayer, paying all of its taxes owed in every country in which it operates.” She added that stock buybacks “are not impacting our ability to invest in or reopen” the facility, located in Sturgis, Mich., as the company’s “strong balance sheet helps us respond more quickly to the current challenge.”
Democrats propose funds to ease formula shortage as kids are hospitalized
The flurry of efforts reflected a growing sense of urgency in the capital, where Democrats and Republicans alike have felt voters’ ire in recent weeks about the shortage. The trouble also has intensified parents’ broader economic anxieties as the costs of gasoline, groceries and other goods are rising amid the fastest uptick in inflation in roughly 40 years.
Much of the disruption is tied to the halt in production at the Abbott facility, since the company is one of four manufacturers that together produce about 90 percent of the country’s supply. In February, Abbott recalled its formula amid reports that bacteria sickened two children and led to the deaths of two others, though the company has maintained there is no definitive link between the cases and its products.
In recent days, the U.S. government has worked with Abbott on a way to reopen the plant safely. But the process could take months, leaving lawmakers and White House officials scrambling for ways to get formula back on store shelves. That included the president’s decision on Wednesday to invoke the Defense Production Act, a law that even some Democrats felt might not cover food security issues. Biden coupled his announcements with a public letter formally requesting key federal agencies “take all appropriate measures available to get additional safe formula into the country immediately.”
On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers have focused their scrutiny on the FDA, arguing the top safety agency should have acted more aggressively — and sooner — to prevent the supply crunch. A whistleblower even tried to warn the FDA about safety concerns at the Abbott plant last October, according to Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee, who has been in touch with the still-unnamed individual. But the FDA did not interview the source until late December, the congresswoman has said, prompting her to join other lawmakers in blasting the agency this week as failing to conduct proper oversight.
To boost the agency, DeLauro chiefly wrote the measure provisioning $28 million in new FDA funding. “The bill is really essential because the FDA plays such a critical role, and what we want to do is get the product on the shelf and make sure it’s manufactured in the safest way,” she said in an interview.
Lawmakers also planned a vote on a second, separate bill that aims to ease the burden on low-income parents by allowing the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program — a major national purchaser of formula — to source it from more foreign suppliers. The measure is expected to pass the House later Wednesday.
Democrats have promised additional actions still to come: At a news conference earlier this week, DeLauro and others suggested they could next try to require formula suppliers to report more to the government about their production. They teased a hearing next week featuring the FDA and witnesses from top formula manufacturers. And they said they had asked for a federal investigation into the specific causes of the current crunch that has depleted store shelves nationally.
But Republicans this week have signaled they are likely to vote against awarding $28 million to the FDA. They have argued that the agency just received a bigger budget, and they raised questions as to whether the money would even make an immediate difference for families in great need.
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The partisan split raised the odds that the bill could falter in the Senate, where Democrats require Republican votes to proceed. Privately, GOP aides have expressed skepticism in recent days about the need for any new spending in response to the formula shortage. And publicly, the party’s top lawmakers assailed the Biden administration, arguing it should have anticipated the crisis and acted sooner to address it.
“We need to help families solve it. It should have been foreseeable. And it’s unfortunate. And I’m willing to look at any solution,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said this week.
But, he added of the Democrats’ new bill: “I’m not sure it’s a solution. You know, every problem can’t be solved with immediate money.”
Mike DeBonis and Laura Reiley contributed to this report.
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By Tony Romm
Tony Romm is the congressional economic policy reporter at The Washington Post. Twitter
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| The text being discussed is available at | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/05/18/house-formula-shortage-abbott/ and |