President Joe Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act that will allow him to take direct action to speed the importation and manufacture of baby formula in the United States to alleviate the shortage caused by the shutdown of a plant in Michigan due to concerns about a bacterial infection, the Associated Press reports.
The Food and Drug Administration has enacted a streamlined review process that would allow it to approve foreign-made formula to be imported, and the Biden administration is removing tariffs and other financial penalties instituted by the previous administration during its trade war to make the products affordable.
Biden can also order commercial flights by US-based airlines to carry shipments of baby formula from foreign ports to speed delivery, bypassing traditional shipping routes.
The shortage of baby formula was exacerbated by the closure of an Abbott factory in Michigan after two children died from a rare bacterial infection linked to their formula; two other children were sickened by the same bacteria. Abbott has denied responsibility for the infections. The FDA has been working with Abbott to restart production at the plant, but the free market has failed to fill the gap in supply, and so-called free-market advocates in the Republican Party have whined for government interference in the Free Market to fix the problem.