Baby Formula Shortage
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, in late April and early May when parents and Republicans in Congress began to sound the alarm about the unacceptable scarcity of baby formula, I thought to myself, Well, this is just another example of the compounding effect of the bad policies of the Biden administration.
But at the time, the facts had not come to light that the crisis is yet another direct result of the mismanagement and misguided Biden Presidency; a President focused on a woke, progressive agenda, while the basic functions of government are neglected or mismanaged.
The most critical fact that has come to light is that Abbott Nutrition's Sturgis plant supplied about one-fifth, 20 percent, of all infant formula in the United States before it closed. Furthermore, the company makes the majority of the formula for infants in the Women, Infants, and Children program. That is more than 43 percent of babies in the United States. It is unfathomable that a facility this critical to the lives of our Nation's newborns can somehow slip through the cracks.
As of this past weekend, I am glad to see that the Sturgis plant is making formula again, but it could take a couple of months for supply to hit store shelves. Currently, the Nation's current out-of-stock rate is 74 percent. In Tennessee, it is 92 percent. This is indeed a worst- case scenario for parents and their vulnerable infant children.
How did we get here? Let's go through the timeline.
In September of 2019, inspectors found a handful of sanitary issues with the plant in Sturgis but allowed managers to continue operating while they implemented necessary changes.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA conducted its first routine inspection of the Abbott Sturgis plant in 2 years in September of 2021. They found that the issues uncovered in the 2019 surveillance inspection had been resolved. At about the same time, in September 2021, the FDA receives the first complaint that a child was hospitalized with Cronobacter. Meanwhile, the Nation's out-of-stock rate for infant formula rose to 11 percent in November of 2021, when Dr. Robert Califf was nominated to serve as commissioner of the FDA.
December 1, the FDA received a second complaint related to the death of a child. The Centers for Disease Control determined that Cronobacter could have been a contributing factor.
In January of this year, the FDA receives their third complaint of a child hospitalized with Cronobacter, while at the same time The New York Times reports that baby formula shortages are, ``worsening throughout the United States.''
On January 31, the FDA begins a delayed follow-up inspection of the Abbott Sturgis plant. Thirteen days later, the nationwide out-of-stock rate of infant formula rises to 26 percent. Two days later, on February 15, Dr. Robert Califf is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new commissioner of the FDA.
Two days after that, on the commissioner's second day on the job, Abbott announces a voluntary recall and hold of certain powdered infant formulas produced at the Sturgis plant. The same day, the FDA receives a fourth Cronobacter complaint.
Why does this timeline matter? Because President Biden said he wasn't made aware of the issues with the stock of baby formula until late April.
Now just imagine, on your second day on the job, a fire breaks out in your office, and you don't call the President to let him know? I don't understand. I truly don't.
Again, this plant produces one-fifth of the Nation's supply of baby formula. The crisis was foreseeable and extraordinary steps should have been taken to avoid it. There is no doubt in my mind that the February formula recall followed by the Sturgis plant closure is the primary factor that turned an already increasing problem into a crisis.
There should have been more urgency. It should have been clear to the Biden administration in February that we were going to have a problem. Maybe it was and they just didn't want to tell the President, or maybe he was busy that day. Who knows. I am sure we will find out when Republicans take back the majority and conduct proper oversight of this administration.
Put simply, the FDA and President Biden fumbled the ball for months, and families across this country are paying the price. We cannot afford for this administration to take its eye off the ball again. The President must do better.
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