Hi [firstname],

Many parents are struggling to find formula for their infants amidst the national formula shortage. Let me be clear: this shortage is happening because the top leaders at a major formula manufacturer put their own greed and selfishness above the health and safety of America's kids.

Abbott is one of four companies that control nearly 90% of the market for formula—making huge profits while ignoring the safety warnings that led to this recall. Even worse, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration failed to heed the warnings of a whistleblower and did not take appropriate action when they learned about unsanitary conditions at Abbott's plant. This is unacceptable.

As a dad, making sure that parents have everything they need to safely provide for their kids is one of my top priorities in Congress. I'm reaching out to tell you that President Biden and Democrats in Congress are hard at work to address the formula industry's shortage head-on, and help is already on the way.

I want to let you know that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has resources available for parents having trouble accessing formula.

First Lady Jill Biden and other Administration officials welcome the second 'Operation Fly Formula' shipment.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

On May 12th, President Biden announced several urgent steps his administration was taking to alleviate the crisis. This included expanding WIC benefits, cracking down on price gouging, growing the supply of formula through increased imports, and safely reopening an essential baby formula plant.

Then, the president invoked the Defense Production Act to further build up the nation's formula supply and instituted Operation Fly Formula to speed up the import of infant formula. Using commercial aircraft to pick up formula abroad and bring it back to America, Operation Fly Formula is importing the equivalent of 1.5 million bottles of formula which will immediately be used to stock store shelves. Yesterday, First Lady Jill Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy welcomed the second shipment of Operation Fly Formula, adding tens of thousands of pounds of baby formula from Europe to the Unites States' supply.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed two bills that will help restore the domestic supply of safe infant formula, ensure every baby has the nutrition needed to live and thrive, and prevent something like this from happening again:

We passed a Supplemental Funding Bill to provide the FDA with tools to help tackle the infant formula shortage. This will increase the number of FDA inspection staff, provide resources for personnel working on formula issues, help the agency end fraudulent and unsafe baby formula from entering the marketplace, and improve data collection on the formula market.

The Access to Baby Formula Act offers flexibility so that low-income families can continue purchasing safe infant formula with their WIC benefits during a crisis, such as a supply chain disruption.

If you have more questions, I want you to know that my office is here to help you in whatever way we can. You can find contact information for all my offices by clicking here, or email me by clicking here.

These are just the preliminary steps that are being taken to ease the infant formula shortage. We understand this issue requires urgent action and we will continue to listen to American parents as we fight for solutions to fix this dire problem.

Sincerely,

James P. McGovern

Member of Congress