Formula Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, for months now, American babies have endured an unprecedented and prolonged formula shortage. Some doctors have called this the worst crisis of their careers. It has become so widespread that nearly everyone knows someone who has been personally affected. Desperate parents have scoured online marketplaces. They reached out to family and friends for help. They paid exorbitant markups just to feed their babies. In some worst-case scenarios, some have even resorted to dangerous homemade formulas. In the U.S.A., no parent should be left to wonder how they are going to feed their newborn baby.

After months of work and bipartisan collaboration with my colleagues in the House and the Senate, I rise to pass needed reforms that will finally provide relief to hungry babies. Today, we can take action to alleviate a crisis largely of the Federal Government's own creation.

Poor governance has crippled our domestic formula market. Tariffs and regulations have prevented safe foreign formulas from entering the United States, even while we are experiencing this acute shortage at home.

Currently, the government imposes a 17.5-percent minimum tariff on formula imports. This tariff has stifled competition. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can lift these substantial tariffs on the importation of baby formulas and reduce the costs borne by retailers to provide access to safe, affordable formula. Doing so will expand the severely limited formula options for American consumers. This modified version of the Formula Act does just that by waiving these tariffs through the end of this year.

While passing my bill won't provide immediate relief, our work is far from complete. I am committed to doing everything I can not only to provide this relief now but also to make the necessary permanent reforms to our system to ensure that a crisis like this never arises again.

We still have work to do, and we must further our efforts by allowing WIC recipients to buy whatever brand of formula might be available. We must make meaningful reforms to how the FDA regulates the formula industry. Passing this bill today is the first step. In the meantime, I am actively working on expanding the list of products to receive temporary relief from tariffs. While this is an important first step, it is certainly not the last.

This crisis is such that American babies cannot wait any longer than they already have. We have a moral obligation to these infants to say that we did everything we possibly could to fight for them.

Passing the Formula Act will be an incredible win for families and hungry babies everywhere. It will make meaningful headway that is so desperately needed today. By suspending the tariff on formula imports, we are providing cheaper access to individual consumers and to retailers alike. This relief has been long overdue and long overdue especially for Utahns, who have the largest families, the most children per capita, and the highest birth rate.

I am grateful for the countless hours of behind-the-scenes work and successful negotiations with my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, in the House and in the Senate, which have resulted in a win for our most vulnerable Americans--babies. I look forward to continuing this important work with them.

Passing my Formula Act today is a victory for families and for babies everywhere.

8351.
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Mr. LEE. I know of no further debate on the bill.
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