NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The baby formula crisis continues to have parents scrambling to find food.
The issue now has the Biden administration stepping in to help come up with a solution.
President Joe Biden says more formula should be on store shelves this week
His administration plans to offer flexibility for the Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and explore the option to import some formula from abroad.
Last week, President Biden announced a series of modest moves to help increase the supply of formula, including plans to increase imports and speed manufacturing.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken an extra step by writing a letter to lawmakers, vowing she would expedite a bill to grant emergency authority to the federal food assistance program for women and children to relax restrictions on the types of formula that can be purchased.
Loosening the rules could help ensure that recipients are able to buy whatever type is available.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has noted four companies make roughly 90% of the formula in the U.S.
"This is a capitalist country. The government does not make baby formula, nor should it. Companies make formula. And one of those companies, a company which, by the way, seems to have 40% market share, messed up and is unable to confirm that a plant, a major plant, is safe and free of contamination. So, the most important thing to do right now, of course, is to get that plant in Michigan up and running safely. And that's the work that's going on between the company and the FDA,” Buttigieg said.
As a father of 9-month-old twins himself, Buttigieg said the Biden administration is doing all they can right now.
