Biden says he was alerted to baby formula shortage in April - but problems were apparent months ago
Biden said he would have needed to be a ‘mind reader’ to respond quicker to the baby formula shortage, but members of Congress and analysts say the federal government should have acted sooner.
- The FDA knew a major manufacturer of baby formula shut down a plant in February.
- FDA leaders admitted the agency responded too slow to a complaint at the factory.
- Rep. Rosa DeLauro said FDA should have done better, but said White House acted quickly.
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden swatted away suggestions in May that his administration should have responded sooner to a baby formula shortage that left store shelves bare and incited panic among parents.
“If we’d been mind readers, I guess we could have,” Biden said at the White House. “But we moved as quickly as the problem became apparent to us.”
But the problem was apparent months ago, long before the White House appeared to kick into high gear to respond to the crisis last month, invoking war-time powers to increase production, lifting regulations on formula transport, and convening retailers and manufacturers to discuss solutions.
The Food and Drug Administration – part of Biden’s administration – knew a major producer of baby formula shut down a contaminated plant and recalled its products in February, depleting an already strained supply and sending families across the nation searching for limited nourishment for their babies.
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