[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 8, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5344-H5345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
  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

[[Page H5345]]

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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