After America endured six months of its worst baby formula shortage in decades, Joe Biden finally invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA) on May 18. The DPA enables the president to order the production or importation of supplies needed to save lives during national emergencies—in short, to mitigate shortages. When asked why he didn’t invoke the DPA sooner, Biden mentioned that he and his Administration are not “mind readers”—despite being so-called “experts”—suggesting he and his Administration are blameless for endangering the lives of over 3 million American babies.
Here’s the reality: if President Trump and my former boss, Peter Navarro—President Trump’s trade and manufacturing advisor and DPA policy coordinator—reacted as belatedly and nonchalantly to the rapidly spreading coronavirus in 2020, they would have been slammed by the media establishment, public health “experts,” and other Democratic Party operatives. In reality, President Trump, Peter Navarro, and the entire Trump Administration were in rapid-response mode in early 2020, shutting down travel from China and invoking the DPA to fix our medical supply chains by March 2020.
By January 2021, the Trump Administration had used the Defense Production Act over 100 times, which provided several large-scale and long-term contracts for American manufacturers to produce medical supplies domestically. In short, the Trump Administration spurred the greatest mobilization of American industry since World War II. Biden has not awarded a single DPA contract to date to American baby formula manufacturers. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration remains focused on violating Second Amendment rights, preserving Roe v. Wade, and jet-setting to Latin America. Three key issues characterize Team Biden’s baby formula shortage and Biden’s tenure: inaction and then a sluggish reaction, a perpetuation of foreign dependency on critical supply chains, and a prioritization of Ukraine over domestic policy.
Too little, too late.
For one, Biden and his Administration knew about this shortage six months ago—and they did nothing to fix it. ABC News and the New York Times reported on baby formula shortages in October 2021, and Biden’s own FDA commissioner recently admitted that his agency had been way “too slow” in responding to this crisis, which has led to hospitalized malnourished infants and empty store shelves. Also, Abbott Laboratories—the company responsible for 40% of US baby formula production—reported that its baby formula factory had a dangerous bacterial problem in February, with, of course, no response at the time from the Biden Administration.
Biden’s baby formula shipments are foreign.
Second, the Biden Administration is reinforcing our dependence on foreign supply chains for critical materials by immediately turning to Europe for mass imports of baby formula. Additionally, the Biden Administration took 217 days to invoke the DPA for this crisis from when shortages were first reported. Conversely, when combatting ventilator shortages during the pandemic, Trump and Navarro utilized the DPA to bolster U.S. industry and national security by mobilizing companies like General Motors to stand up brand new factories within just seventeen days. The “experts” in the Biden Administration are lucky that Europe has not invoked export controls on baby formula, as over eighty countries did in regard to their medical supplies during the pandemic. Otherwise, our infants would still be stuck with nothing.
Third, it’s apparent Biden is prioritizing Ukraine over American infants. Following the Supreme Court leak of a draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Biden is already threatening lawsuits, while only taking a few days to sign off on $40 billion for Ukraine. Furthermore, while delivering a college commencement speech, Kamala Harris was practically on the verge of tears at the thought of what she imagines overturn of Roe v. Wade will mean. The Biden Administration’s only advice to concerned parents as recently as the middle of this month was to go ask their doctors for free samples of formula.
Biden-esque Band-Aids Versus Trumpian Solutions
Several lawmakers in Congress have proposed remedies to address this crisis, including Democrat Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Republican Senator Rand Paul. However, DeLauro’s $28 million bill to combat the baby formula shortage (which is currently headed to the Senate) mostly goes toward raising salaries for FDA bureaucrats, while Senator Paul’s bill aims to remove tariffs and other import restrictions on foreign-sourced baby formula, which only exacerbates our reliance on foreign countries for manufactured goods. Needless to say, these bills are band-aids, not solutions, to the crisis.
To solve the formula shortage, what needs to happen is a Trumpian-style industry revival through strategic use of the DPA to bolster American factories and mobilize American workers. The federal government should redirect tax dollars being sent abroad to foreign countries like Ukraine, and instead award multiple large-scale government contracts to U.S. baby formula manufacturers. This should be done with strong oversight to ensure that production facilities meet the highest-quality safety standards. These actions will, in turn, create and sustain jobs, revamp the baby formula industry, and save lives.
