The Biden administration's push to increase the supply of baby formula is seeing real results as a military C-17 cargo plane brought 132 pallets containing 35 tons of formula to Indianapolis on Sunday. The formula, which came from Switzerland via Germany, is a specialized hypoallergenic type that will be distributed to medical providers to get to the babies and toddlers who need it most. It will be enough to feed 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers for a week. Another military flight with 114 pallets of hypoallergenic formula is expected in the coming days.
Additionally, under President Joe Biden’s invocation of the Defense Production Act, two authorizations were issued allowing formula makers to get priority access to the ingredients and equipment they need.
The Biden administration’s efforts both to get specialized formula to babies who can’t tolerate regular cow’s milk-based products and to increase the supply being manufactured in the U.S. stand in contrast to the Republican response to the baby formula shortage, which has been a combination of partisan attacks and voting against measures to ease the shortage.
RELATED STORY: 192 House Republicans vote against easing the baby formula shortage
On Wednesday, 192 House Republicans voted against a bill to provide $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase inspection staff—remember that a key reason for the shortage was concerns about contamination forcing the closure of a major formula plant—as well as preventing the sale of fraudulent formula during the crisis and improving data collection. Just 12 voted for the bill. Nine House Republicans also voted against a bill to ensure that people on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) can access formula, given a system where states contract with specific formula companies and if those brands are out of stock, WIC recipients cannot get anything else.
That latter bill did pass the Senate by unanimous consent on Thursday, so there are nine House Republicans who are even worse than Republicans senators like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul. But prospects for the FDA funding to pass the Senate are dim.
In addition to voting against funding to tackle the crisis, Republicans have used the formula shortage for vile partisan attacks basically calling for the Biden administration to starve immigrant babies in U.S. custody. Republican after Republican howled in outrage that border facilities had some formula on hand for migrant babies detained after being brought across the border—as is required by a long-standing legal settlement that calls for the government to offer people in its custody basic humane treatment, including feeding them. Which, for babies, means formula. For those who are not breastfed, no other food will do. Even Donald Trump abided by this requirement, with a 2020 Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report on how the federal government was handling migrants arriving at the border in 2019 including the line, “We also observed all Border Patrol stations had food, snacks, juice, and infant formula available for children.”
Now that formula is in the headlines, though, Republicans used it as a political tool to demand that the U.S. government starve immigrant babies.
The Abbott Laboratories formula plant that was forced to close, turning a mild formula shortage into a crisis, is slated to reopen in the next week or two following a consent decree with the FDA that includes safety upgrades and certifications. Once it reopens, it could take as long as two months for it to affect the formula supply, but it’s a positive development. Military flights importing formula from other countries can hopefully fill the gaps in the meantime by providing the most specialized formulas needed by babies with allergies and more serious health conditions.
One thing we do know is that however the formula crisis ends, it will be no thanks to Republicans.
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