“I think the White House absolutely understands the severity and the urgency of the issue,” Spanberger said. “But until there’s more food on the shelves, I am not satisfied.”
Spanberger said that she and Klain also discussed the fact that invoking the law may provide a longer term solution, but would not be the quickest way to get baby formula back on shelves.
“We talked through the fact that the DPA, while potentially a really important thing for them to consider,” Spanberger said, “may not be as fast as just loading up planes and ensuring that baby food from the Netherlands or other European partners can get here quickly.”
“I think the White House absolutely understands the severity and the urgency of the issue,” Spanberger added. “But until there’s more food on the shelves, I am not satisfied.”
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.
US grocery store shelves had even less infant formula last week than they had the week before, according to a new report from Datasembly, a real-time data tracking agency that gauges how much product is available.
White House refuses to call the shortage a crisis or nail down a timeline
White House press secretary Jen Psaki also told reporters on Thursday that the Defense Production Act was one of the “range of options” being considered to address the crisis.
But Psaki could not answer what the administration’s guidance is for a concerned parent who cannot find formula to feed their baby.
Asked what a parent who doesn’t have access to formula or breast milk should do — whether there is a hotline they can call or if they should head to the hospital, for example — Psaki said: “I would say those are important public health questions. But what I can report on here, what I can convey to all of you is what we’re doing to address exactly that concern, which is taking every step we can to ensure there is supply on store shelves and we have increased the supply over the last four weeks.”
When pressed which government agency such questions would be better directed at, and again what a parent should do if they can’t find formula for their baby, Psaki, without naming an agency, said: “We certainly encourage any parent who has concerns about their child’s health or well-being to call their doctor or pediatrician.”
Though they’ve expressed optimism about increased production levels, Biden officials have repeatedly declined to predict when store shelves will return to normal.
On Friday, Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan that she could not indicate when the shortage will end.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell your audience that I can give you a hard timeline that I can’t give you,” she told Bolduan when pressed several times on when parents can expect a return to more formula on store shelves. “We are being candid about moving as quickly as possible. And we are relentlessly focused on this.”
Bedingfield also refused to call the shortage a crisis.
“Well, I don’t think it’s about a label. I think it’s about addressing directly the need that families all across the country have,” she said. “Listen, I’m a mom. I have two young kids. I’m not terribly far removed from the days of feeding my kids with formula. I know … and the President knows how stressful this is for families across the country.”
Bedingfield also said additional announcements from the FDA are expected “in the coming days.”
Shortages spark congressional hearings
A spokesperson told CNN that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Friday morning sent letters to four separate companies that produce baby formula requesting information about the supply chain issues.
A House Energy and Commerce Committee spokesperson announced a hearing on baby formula for May 25 and told CNN they plan to call representatives from the Food and Drug Administration and Abbott, a major baby formula producer, to testify.
And the House Appropriations Committee will also hold two hearings related to the shortages, including one next week with FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf on the FDA’s 2023 budget request and oversight of infant formula.
The committee’s chairwoman, Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, told CNN she believes the FDA “dragged their feet” in addressing problems with Abbott Nutrition but that she doesn’t blame the Biden administration for the shortage.
“Abbott Nutrition has been a bad actor, produced a contaminated product,” she said. “They had a whistleblower’s report that went to the FDA in October. (The whistleblower) was not interviewed until December and then the recall happened in February.”
CNN’s Daniella Diaz and Jasmine Wright contributed to this report.
