Parents may be worried about the nationwide baby food shortage. It has been difficult to find baby formula on the shelves at grocery stores and pharmacies. It may feel dire, but steps have been taken to improve the situation.
On May 12, 2022, 32 Senate Democrats, led by Senators Patty Murray (D-Washington), and Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) sent a letter to the Infant Nutrition Council of America. The Democrats wrote, “We are calling on you and your member companies to take immediate action and ensure that infant formula manufacturers are making every effort to mitigate this dangerous shortage and get children the nourishment they need.”
Also on May 12, 2022, the Biden Administration announced several actions that would be taken to help alleviate the baby formula shortage. The President spoke with Walmart, Target, Reckitt and Gerber to get more baby formula on the shelves. He also asked state governments to provide more flexibility to the WIC program, which provides for poor families. He also planned to import more baby formula into the United States, and asked the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to crack down on any price gouging on baby formula.
On May 18, 2022, President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to increase production of baby formula and created “Operation Fly Formula” to deploy Defense Department planes and speed formula shipments into the United States from overseas. This would enable the planes to bring baby formula from overseas more quickly.
According to The New York Times, the White House took action only hours before the House took action of its own, approving an emergency infusion of $28 million for the Food and Drug Administration and a bill to loosen restrictions on what kind of formula can be purchased through the federal food aid program for women and babies.
On May 22, 2022, CNN reported that a shipment of 35 tons of baby formula had arrived Sunday in Indianapolis on a US military aircraft from Germany to address the baby formula shortage in the United States. The prescription formula will be distributed to areas around the country where there is the most acute need. None of the first shipment would land on store shelves because the shipment is hypoallergenic and will be fed to babies intolerant of protein in cow milk.
The shipment included 132 pallets of formula, which arrived on one C-17 cargo plane. The formula originated from Zurich, Switzerland, and was trucked to Germany, where it was loaded on the C-17 and flown to the U.S.
On May 24, 2022, The Hill reported that First Lady Jill Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy would meet the second flight carrying infant formula from oversees when it arrived at Dulles International Airport.
The plane took off from the Ramstein Air Base in Germany and transported more than 100,000 pounds of infant formula. The White House said in an announcement that this equates to roughly 1 million 8-ounce bottles of Nestlé formula.
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