Biden invokes Defense Production Act to ease baby formula shortage
Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins the Live show to discuss how the White House is looking to combat the nationwide baby formula shortage.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: The White House is scrambling to combat the nationwide baby formula shortage. President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act to speed up the production of baby formulas and authorize flights to import supplies from overseas, something that hasn't really been done much in the US. Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani is here with us in studio with more of the details on how this is going to work and how quickly, which is really important for parents.
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's right. So they're trying to get this all done really as rapidly as possible. And we've got a multiple sort of government action effort going into place. So of course, President Biden invoking the Defense Production Act will ensure that any suppliers of baby formula are going to be able to give that to the manufacturers as quickly as possible and ensure that they are prioritized, similar to what we saw with vaccines. We also know that Congress had voted against a $28 million additional boost for the FDA to get resources in order to really look into being able to identify really, like, some of the issues that we had seen.
Of course, we know this all came about because of Abbott's contamination issues back in February, having to shut down a Michigan plant, the largest maker of baby formula now under fire by all-- many houses-- sorry, many committees. Actually, we've seen the House approach Appropriations Committee with that bill. We also know the House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to hold a hearing next week, looking at not just the FDA, but also company officials and questioning them on how we got to this point, where there was basically a single point of failure.
In addition, the agricultural committee is meeting today with the FDA commissioner to ask why no action was taken sooner, especially when we saw a whistleblower account from October that was filed, letting the FDA know that there had been concerns at this Abbott plant before. So really, a lot going on. The FDA has also been in talks with Abbott. And they're looking to restart that plant in Michigan soon. But it still will be about two months in total before we can really see any progress there.
So just all of government, as you can see, action there. This new additional action by the president really to help speed things up, but everything takes time to implement. And so that's where we have to just wait and see how long it all takes.
JULIE HYMAN: Well, parents of babies who need formula, they don't really have that time to wait and see. So let's hope that this happens immediately. Thanks so much, Anjalee. Appreciate it.
