While it was just one in the long list of crises mismanaged, created, or worsened by President Biden and his administration, the shortage of formula had wide-reaching impacts on vulnerable populations that left Americans scrambling to secure nutrition for their families.
Making Biden's faltering response even worse are new revelations from the House Oversight Committee that the White House had advance knowledge — months of time — in which they could have taken the shortage seriously and worked to avert the worst of the crisis.
Oversight's Health Care and Financial Services Subcommittee Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) called out Biden's FDA Administrator Robert Califf this week in a hearing and brought the receipts, emails in this case, revealing that Biden could have acted sooner than he should to mitigate the formula shortage.
Specifically, McClain had two internal FDA email threads from February 2022. In the first, from February 4, FDA officials discussed potential infant formula supply issues and sought quick help from the White House to ensure Americans are prepared. By the time the second email exchange was happening on February 19, FDA officials talked about already-unfolding supply issues.
"Despite these discussions within the FDA, media reports said the president was not aware of the problem even though it was headlining nearly every news channel and every paper across the country for three months," McClain noted in this week's hearing with Commissioner Califf. "My question is: did the FDA not raise concerns about the potential shortage even before the recall?" she asked, referencing the voluntary recall of formula produced at Abbott's Sturgis, Michigan, plant initiated in February 2022.
Califf, who was coincidentally confirmed to the FDA post the day Abbott announced the voluntary recall in mid-February, said he "can't speak for before the recall but at about the time of the recall."
As a refresher, President Biden said in June 2022 as the formula shortage continued that he didn't know about the issue until April 2022. But, as the FDA emails McClain obtained show, the FDA rang the alarm about shortages with at least nine different White House officials in February. Biden claims he wasn't made aware of the issue until April. It would take until May for the White House to actually do anything at which point Biden erroneously stated "we moved as quickly as the problem became apparent to us."
"Either the FDA didn't tell him or he didn't act," emphasized McClain in her questioning of Califf. "Which is it?"
"I think you have the emails and I can't really comment beyond that," was all the FDA chief could muster as a response.
The FDA ignored the baby formula shortage for months and babies died because of it. Now, they are letting product applications rot in purgatory while the market is overrun with illegal goods.
— Representative Lisa McClain (@RepLisaMcClain) April 11, 2024
They call this leadership? They expect us to trust them? Give me a break. pic.twitter.com/gQH3FiWnRE
Just as it was clear to American families relying on formula as soon as Abbott initiated its recall, the FDA knew that there were serious supply shortages — and had even discussed the potential of shortages before the recall — sparking a crisis. The FDA made multiple White House officials working in the Executive Office of the President (denoted by "EOP" in the emails) aware of the worsening crisis in February. Then, according to Biden's version of events, he was first alerted to the situation in April, but didn't do anything until May, when he "moved as quickly as the problem became apparent."
Either no one in the White House told Biden of the crisis as it developed — for months — and he was somehow entirely unaware of the widespread coverage of the formula shortage, or he and his aides were aware and didn't do anything as formula shelves sat empty and vulnerable Americans were left without the nourishment they needed.
Chairwoman McClain is right: the American people deserve answers.
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