WASHINGTON – House lawmakers are set to vote on two bills to combat a national baby formula shortage, as Democrats looked to ratchet up the pressure on Abbott Laboratories, a top manufacturer, for its role in the crisis.
The proposals aim to aid low-income Americans and provide $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration, part of a broader strategy to address the supply crunch, prevent future disruptions and enhance safety inspections in the wake of a major plant shutdown in Michigan over sanitation concerns.
The closure of that plant, operated by Abbott, also drew fresh scrutiny from other Democrats on Wednesday. Party lawmakers fired off sharply critical letters questioning the company’s business practices – including its decision to spend recent record revenue on stock buybacks rather than safety improvements.
“As Abbott spent billions buying back its own stock, it appears that it failed to make necessary repairs to fix a critical manufacturing plant of infant formula located in Michigan,” charged Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the tax-focused Senate Finance Committee, in a letter to the company.
In a second missive, Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., demanded that Abbott CEO Robert B. Ford furnish additional evidence about corporate executives’ pay. In a statement, Warren blasted the company for “raking in massive profits and handing out billions to shareholders and executives while repeatedly and brazenly ignoring warnings and violating safety rules.”
Vicky Assardo, a spokeswoman for Abbott, stressed in response that the company is a “responsible and transparent taxpayer, paying all of its taxes owed in every country in which it operates.” She added that stock buybacks “are not impacting our ability to invest in or re-open” the facility, located in Sturgis, Mich., as the company’s “strong balance sheet helps us respond more quickly to the current challenge.”
The flurry of efforts marked a major escalation on Capitol Hill, where Democrats and Republicans alike have channeled their voters’ ire following weeks of stories about families driving miles on end to find formula for infants in need. The shortage has intensified parents’ economic anxieties as the costs of gasoline, groceries and other goods are rising amid the fastest uptick in inflation in roughly 40 years.
Much of the formula shortage is tied to the halt in production at the Abbott facility, since the company is one of four manufacturers that together produce about 90% of the country’s supply. In February, Abbott recalled its formula amid reports that bacteria sickened two children and led to the death of two others, though the company has maintained there is no definitive link between the cases and its products.
In recent days, the U.S. government has worked with Abbott on a way to reopen the plant safely. But the process could take months, leaving lawmakers and White House officials scrambling for ways to get formula back on store shelves. Top aides to the Biden administration have said they are exploring whether to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel manufacturers to make more formula, relying on the same legal authorities that helped the United States stock up on supplies earlier in the coronavirus pandemic.
Others have excoriated the FDA, arguing the top safety agency should have acted more aggressively – and sooner – to prevent the supply crunch. A whistleblower even tried to warn the FDA about safety concerns at the Abbott plant last October, according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee, who has been in touch with the still-unnamed individual. But the FDA did not interview the source until late December, the congresswoman has said, prompting her to join other lawmakers in blasting the agency this week as failing to conduct proper oversight.
In doing so, DeLauro also prepared the $28 million in new FDA funding. Lawmakers also are readying a second, separate bill that aims to ease the burden on low-income parents by allowing the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program – a major national purchaser of formula – to source it from more foreign suppliers.
Democrats have promised additional actions still to come: At a news conference earlier this week, DeLauro and others suggested they could next try to require formula suppliers to report more to the government about their production. They teased a hearing next week featuring the FDA and witnesses from top formula manufacturers. And they said they had asked for a federal investigation into the specific causes of the current crunch that has depleted store shelves nationally.
But Republicans this week have signaled they are likely to vote against awarding $28 million to the FDA. They have argued that the agency just received a bigger budget, and they raised questions as to whether the money would even make an immediate difference for families in great need.
The partisan split raised the odds that the bill could falter in the Senate, where Democrats require Republican votes to proceed. Privately, GOP aides have expressed skepticism in recent days about the need for any new spending in response to the formula shortage. And publicly, the party’s top lawmakers assailed the Biden administration, arguing it should have anticipated the crisis and acted sooner to address it.
“We need to help families solve it. It should have been foreseeable. And it’s unfortunate. And I’m willing to look at any solution,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said this week.
But, he added of the Democrats’ new bill: “I’m not sure it’s a solution. You know, every problem can’t be solved with immediate money.”
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Tony Romm
