Democrat Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) has blasted President Joe Biden over his administration’s handling of the national baby formula shortage.
Speaking to NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ali Vitali, Murray pinned the blame directly on Biden and his team.
She said she gives everyone involved in the baby formula shortage “an F” for their handling of the crisis.
“I give everyone an F on the entire spectrum on this,” Murray said.
“From the company itself to the FDA…Nobody focused on this like they needed to.
“And it needs to have someone at the White House who is coordinating all these responses to get this product back on the shelves.”
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Biden wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra requesting they both “work expeditiously to identify any and all avenues to speed the importation of safe infant formula into the United States and onto store shelves.”
“I further request that over the next week you work with the Department of Defense to utilize contracted aircraft to accelerate the arrival of infant formula into the United States that meets our Government’s health and safety standards.
“This will ensure that we are using every available tool to get American families swift access to the infant formula they need,” he wrote.
The Biden administration’s incompetence caused the nation’s formula shortage. Their response is too little too late. pic.twitter.com/cfnBcc6FgT
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) May 19, 2022
According to NBC News, “In a letter first obtained by NBC News, Sens. Patty Murray of Washington and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to ‘immediately assign a coordinator’ within the administration to work directly with manufacturers and oversee a national strategy to increase supply chain resiliency as well as prevent future shortages.
“On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration announced new measures to boost formula supplies, including streamlining the ability of manufacturers globally to sell their products in the U.S., waiving certain trade barriers that have prevented some imports.”
“We were encouraged to see FDA take steps this week to address the formula shortage,” they wrote, but the federal government “needs to do more to get formula back on shelves as soon as possible and secure the supply chain of infant formula to prevent this type of crisis from happening again.”
