Biden invokes emergency powers to ease baby formula shortage in US
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WASHINGTON • United States President Joe Biden has invoked emergency powers under the Defence Production Act (DPA) to try to boost production of baby formula, while ordering the use of government planes for imports to alleviate shortages.
The White House said in a statement that the move would allow domestic manufacturers to obtain needed ingredients and speed up shipments of foreign stocks.
Mr Biden also announced Operation Fly Formula to ship in supplies from other countries.
"I know parents all across the country are worried about finding enough infant formula to feed their babies.
"As a parent and as a grandparent, I know just how stressful that is," he said in a video posted to Twitter.
He said he was invoking the DPA "to ensure that manufacturers have the necessary ingredients to make safe, healthy infant formula here at home".
The national baby formula shortage has emerged as the latest crisis for the White House, which is struggling to ease supply-chain bottlenecks and inflation sparked by pandemic distortions to the global economy.
The shortage was also caused by a February recall of baby powder formula and the closure of a plant by one of the nation's main manufacturers, Abbott Laboratories.
In a letter, Mr Biden directed Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to "take all appropriate measures available to get additional safe formula into the country immediately".
That would include finding ways to accelerate importation of formula as well as identify aircraft contracted with the government to fly it to the US.
The Food and Drug Administration announced earlier this week that it would ease import rules to try and bolster supply quickly - a move that opens the door for military flights.
The DPA is a wartime powers law that has several provisions, generally allowing the government to force companies to prioritise certain orders.
It has long been used regularly, including in relation to coronavirus vaccine production.
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