Grand Canyon Times

Amid national baby formula shortages, two Arizona Congress members recently voted against the Access to Baby Formula Act. 

During a House vote, Arizona Reps. Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs joined nine other U.S. House Republicans who voted against legislation aimed at helping indigent families obtain baby formula to feed their children as ongoing shortages plague the country, a recent AZ Central report said. But the House of Representatives voted 243-9 on May 18 to pass the Access to Baby Formula Act.

"Spending nearly $30 million more will do nothing to the baby formula crisis created by the Biden administration," Gosar told The Arizona Republic in a written statement, quoted in the AZ Central report. "The fact is, the Biden administration’s FDA knew about the formula shortage for months and refused to work with the impacted baby formula manufacturing plant to enable it to reopen and get supplies back on the shelves. Throwing taxpayer money at a problem and hoping it goes away is not a valid solution."

The current shortage is a product of a number of reasons, including supply chain issues, a monopolistic baby formula market, the closing of a major production company, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) contracts with formula manufacturers; the report said. The bill would serve to expand on the number of baby formulas that are currently covered by the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for WIC in circumstances when the program-approved formulas are not available.

"It is imperative to find solutions to address Biden’s baby formula crisis," Biggs said in a tweet, quoted in the report. "But what my congressional colleagues have proposed tonight does not address the core issues of this crisis."

"[Biggs] wants to pass legislation that effectively addresses the Biden Baby Formula crisis," Biggs spokesperson Matthew Tragesser told The Republic, quoted in the report. "The two bills last night have nice titles but they don’t really address the core issues at hand. He wants to end this shortage just as much as anyone else in this country."

The Access to Baby Formula Act joins another bill passed by the House known as the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, which would provide the Food and Drug Administration approximately $28 million to assist the work being done on the baby formula crisis. Both bills are now in the Senate awaiting action.