Senator Mike Lee, who helped pass the Formula Act, said more federal regulations needed to be lifted to put infant formula back on US shelves.
(Rick Bowmer | AP) A limited supplies sign is displayed on the formula shelf at a grocery store Tuesday, May 10, 2022 in Salt Lake City. Utah Sen. Mike Lee hopes the Formula Act – a bill he sponsored in the Senate last month and which was signed into law by President Joe Biden on July 21, 2022 – will help ease the shortage national formulas.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee said importing more foreign infant formula could help solve the nationwide shortage that has left grocery store shelves short for months, but that’s just one beginning.
Congress and President Joe Biden made efforts last month, partially led by Lee, to pass legislation that would lift tariffs on infant formula imports to encourage foreign manufacturers to sell and ship infant formula. baby food in the United States.
“Formula is subject to costly tariffs, which discourage the importation of formula,” Lee’s office said in a statement to the Salt Lake Tribune. “As a result, 98% of our formula supply is produced domestically. This bill eliminates certain tariffs on infant formula in order to encourage companies abroad to increase their imports.
The Formula Act received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, which passed Bill 421-2, and in the Senate, where Lee requested and received a unanimous support vote. Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegations supported the bill.
The law, signed by Biden on July 21, temporarily suspends tariffs on formulas imported into the United States for the remainder of the year.
According to a press release from House sponsor Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, tariffs on formula from countries without a free trade agreement increase the cost of formula by an average of 27%.
“Suspending tariffs on the import of infant formula and relieving parents of steep price increases is an essential step in ending the shortage of infant formula,” Blumenauer said in the statement. “This crisis requires a whole-of-government response. The Biden administration has taken significant steps to increase supply, and I applaud the FDA’s actions to import more formula. I’m thrilled that Congress has decided to temporarily suspend tariff barriers so that families across the country can access affordable formula. »
Utah’s Lee called for more action from the federal government.
“This bill is just one step,” Lee’s office said in the statement. “We believe that further regulatory reforms (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) and (the United States Food and Drug Administration) are needed to increase the supply of infant formula.”
Lee’s office said imported formula brands are already on the shelves and that the FDA “has informed us that there has been a significant increase in the number of formula producers seeking to enforce import discretion. formulas”.
The continued shortage of formulas is largely the result of supply chain issues. In February, Abbott Nutrition had to shut down a production facility in Michigan after fears the formula was contaminated.
Market research firm IRI Worldwide, which tracks inventory at thousands of stores across the country, said the amount of formula in stock fell from June to July, Bloomberg reported. The research firm also found that Utah — which has one of the highest fertility rates in the country, according to the CDC — was among the hardest hit states.
Representatives from Utah in the U.S. House voted against an additional $28 million relief package in May that aimed to increase the regulatory capacity of the FDA, which proponents of the bill say would support formula production. At the time, all four Utah congressmen expressed concern that the bill would not properly address the shortages.
In May, Biden used the Defense Production Act to ramp up domestic production.
