Legislation designed to ease the baby formula shortage that was introduced by Congresswoman Michelle Steel (R-CA) of Orange County was approved by both the House and the Senate.
H.R. 7791, also known as the Access to Baby Formula Act, would expand distribution through the federal Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) assistance program to women receiving the benefit.
“Kudos to Rep. Steel for having the moral courage to do something about it versus the other partners we have in Congress who don't move very well on things,” said Tony Rodriguez, who is campaigning to unseat Democratic incumbent Adam Schiff in the state's 30th congressional district. “Adam Schiff did not do anything. He's been out here the last month a few times for photo opportunities. That's it.”
U.S. Pres. Joe Biden enacted the bipartisan legislation on May 21.
As previously reported, a nationwide shortage in baby formula emerged after Abbott Laboratories was shut down three months ago by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“We needed something,” Rodriguez told the Southern California Record. “I just think that the government, as a whole, failed because we all knew that this would be an issue back in February, but we just let it go by the wayside until people started screaming. I do like the idea of limiting the rules of engagement for companies so that they have to follow specific criteria.”
The federal WIC program provides grants to states to support low-income postpartum and pregnant women, infants, and children up to age 5, according to a press release issued by Steel. Each state then chooses a specific manufacturer to provide WIC recipients with baby formula.
Provisions in the law include the following.
Formula manufacturers are required to submit a plan with their bids for contracts that will detail how they will address an emergency or disruption without impacting WIC recipients.
“WIC has specific rules on what they can buy and who they can buy for in some cases and this provision will ensure that it opens it up to the WIC recipients those are the people who need it right away,” Rodriguez said. “Every brand should be available under the WIC program.”
The Secretary of Agriculture will issue a narrow set of waivers in the event of an emergency or disruption to help formula get back on the shelves quickly.
“This will remove a lot of red tape,” Rodriguez said. “That's part of the problem we have in the country. We have too much red tape for everything. We need to figure out a way to streamline things so that we don't have this problem.”
States are required to be transparent about the need for an emergency declaration.
“That’s hoping to stop states like California from trying to cover things up and sugar coat things because we have a dictator running California,” Rodriguez added. “Gov. Newsom loves emergency laws and rules so that he can implement whatever he wants to do without any kind of input from the people. This law will stop people like him from doing that.”