House Democratic leaders unveiled a pair of bills on Tuesday to ease infant formula shortages and beef up the FDA office in charge of assuring the products are safe for babies. “People are selling samples on the street. Mothers are watering down formula. Quite frankly, they’re desperate,” said Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, sponsor of one of the bills.
The FDA has said it would encourage imports of infant formula from other nations to supplement U.S. supplies and divert for domestic use formula manufactured in America for export overseas. The House would vote this week on a bill, HR 7790, to give $28 million to FDA to assure the imports meet U.S. standards. It would soon be followed by the Hayes bill giving WIC program more flexibility during emergencies. Half of U.S. babies receive benefits through WIC.
“Let’s get this done together and let’s get this done fast,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer during a news conference. The House is expected to vote on the $28 million FDA bill under a format that limits debate to one hour, bars amendments and needs a two-thirds majority for passage. The are 221 Democrats and 208 Republicans in the House at present, with six vacancies.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the vote on the Hayes bill “hopefully…will be overwhelmingly bipartisan.” The bill would allow states to waive the requirement for WIC participants to buy a particular brand and container size of infant formula, so they could buy products that are available.
FDA commissioner Robert Califf is due to testify at a House hearing on Thursday about the shortage, caused by shut-down of a large Abbott Nutrition facility in Sturgis, Michigan, in mid-February. Two other House committees plan hearings on the matter next week. “When all of this is done…I think there might be a need for indictment,” said Pelosi.
Under a proposed consent decree, Abbott could re-open the plant within a couple of weeks with safeguards to assure sanitary operations. The FDA has been criticized as slow to act on a whistleblower report and reports of illnesses among some infants who consumed formula from the plant. Two babies died. FDA inspectors identified bacteria at the facility that can cause serve foodborne illness in infants.
“The shortage was caused by corporate greed and consolidation,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. “There are only four manufacturers of infant formula in the United States, only four.”
DeLauro said the $28 million would help FDA “prevent fraudulent products from entering into the marketplace.” At the moment, FDA has only nine employees in charge of infant formula safety and suppliers, she said.
Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said a Senate companion to the Hayes bill was being drafted.
To watch a C-SPAN video of the House Democratic news conference, click here. A one-page explanation of the WIC flexibility bill is available here. Text of the WIC flexibility bill is available here.Text of HR 7790, appropriating $28 million for the FDA, is available here.