Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition tonight to H.R. 7790, the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, a bill that just continues the majority's reckless spending spree without actually fixing the infant formula crisis this administration caused.

Like parents across America, I am frustrated by the Biden administration's lack of urgency to address this completely predictable crisis. In fact, infant formula supply challenges started last fall and were exacerbated with the Abbott recall of infant formula and the facility closing in February.

At that time, the administration and the FDA should have made it a priority, back in February, to get this plant safely back online as quickly as possible. Instead, they allowed yet another crisis to occur. In fact, the facility remains idle 3 months later, with just a recent announcement by the FDA that they have now come to an agreement with Abbott on how to reopen the plant.

The answer to the formula shortage is the families need more formula, and we need to get one of the largest domestic producers of formula safely operating again.

But this is not a money problem. This is a leadership problem. It is another example of this administration's disregard for hardworking American families who are already struggling with record-high gas prices, food prices, and inflation soaring to a 40-year high.

All of us have constituents impacted by this formula shortage, and this is one issue we should have been able to address in a bipartisan manner.

I thank Ranking Member Granger for her leadership on this issue, offering commonsense solutions that wouldn't have added to our national debt and would have held the FDA accountable for its foot dragging.

Unfortunately, Republican input was dismissed, and this bill just continues the Democrats' strategy of throwing money at the same bureaucrats who caused the crisis and who have not made its solution a priority so that that failed agency can hire even more bureaucrats.

This is yet another missed opportunity to allow Republicans and Democrats to work together for the benefit of American families. Instead, the majority is going it alone, having caused this problem just like they caused the high gas prices, crime in our streets, and rising food prices. They are not solving it with this bill; they are just spending money and adding to the debt our children and grandchildren have to repay.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, come back to the table, work with Republicans, and let's have a bipartisan solution.

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