Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HAYES. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this very important piece of legislation.

WIC recipients utilize formula at roughly double the rate of nonparticipating families, ensuring that this crisis has had a disproportionate impact on communities and families with the highest needs. That means that low-income women and children are particularly vulnerable during this nationwide formula shortage.

Today, we are taking swift action to help these families feed their babies by safely getting more baby formula onto store shelves in the face of manufacturer recalls.

I am excited to work with leadership and introduce the Access to Baby Formula Act, which helps improve access to formula products for WIC participants while also better protecting them during future product recalls.

This legislation establishes waiver authority to address emergencies during disasters and supply chain disruptions by ensuring States that contract companies with the WIC program can secure supplies from additional manufacturers, if necessary.

The bill also waives requirements that slow down the process to get formula back on the shelves, without sacrificing safety standards.

The bill promotes coordination and information sharing between the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding any supply chain disruption, including supplemental food recalls.

As a member of the Education and Labor Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Oversight, and Department Operations, when this crisis arose, I was concerned, like many of my colleagues. I called the chairman and spoke to Speaker Pelosi to share my concerns. We worked together to come up with a solution to get formula to families as quickly as possible.

I thank the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Steel) for joining us in this effort. I thank her so much for her help.

I know the feeling of desperation and stress that mothers, grandmothers, and family members across the country are feeling as they are searching for formula for their children.

Mothers in my district have joined Facebook groups to find where formula is available in our district. They are waiting in long lines outside of stores and buying sample packs on the street. They are even resorting to the dangerous practice of watering down their formula just to stretch the supply. They are desperate.

As many as 75 percent of American families are at least partially dependent on formula to provide nutrients to their infants. Additionally, some infants are solely reliant on specialty formulas to manage medical disorders.

In my district, I talked to Marcia from Farmington and Caitlin from Watertown, who sent messages to my office begging for help. My heart broke as these women shared their stories.

For those families who are able to find formula in local stores, the prices they are paying today have increased dramatically, in some cases up 18 percent over the past year.

It is important to recognize why we are in this situation. Families are actively seeing the consequences of a monopoly in any industry during a time of unprecedented supply chain challenges. The U.S. infant formula market is dominated by three companies: Abbott Nutrition, Enfamil, and Gerber. Abbott holds the largest share of contracts in the WIC program with States, territories, and Tribes. This means that nearly half of all infants in the program are reliant on their formula.

They also provide 43 percent of baby formula in the United States and is one of several companies that controls 89 percent of the U.S. infant formula market, making it especially vulnerable to issues like this.

When the massive companies in charge of this product fail, millions of families are thrust into the dangerous situation of not being able to feed their children.

It is unconscionable that we did not have a backup plan for a supply chain issue like we are seeing, and families are left desperate. This bill does that, ensuring that if we ever have this type of crisis in the future, we are prepared, and we can quickly shift gears.

I want to say to the moms struggling that we hear you in Congress, and you do not need to handle this on your own. We are working to find you a solution. Your words are not falling on deaf ears.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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