DAYTON, Ohio — Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) is introducing a new bill to help keep a supply of baby formula ready for families, and avoid any potential shortages in the future.
“This has been a national crisis throughout the country,” Turner said. “We still have many disruptions in the supply chain — sometimes as much as 30% of product is not available for parents.”
Turner is announcing a new bill called the Improving Newborn Formula Access for a Nutritious Tomorrow (INFANT) Act.
“The government currently requires states, in their WIC program, where the federal government buys 50% of all of the formula all across the country, limits states so they can only contract with one supplier,” Turner said.
Rep. Mike Turner is confident the INFANT Act will have bipartisan support. (Spectrum News 1/Tino Bovenzi)
Under the proposed bill, the INFANT Act would eliminate the one-provider policy, opening the market and preventing potential shortages for families.
Montgomery County WIC program senior manager Tracey Waller said while the supply is recovering there still are many families searching for special formulas for medical issues.
“We are now six months into this crisis and I’m still hearing from parents that shelf supply is still low,” Waller said.
Sara Bledsoe, a mother in Dayton, said her experience through the shortage has been extremely challenging.
“The formula shortage has affected my child a lot because she has to be on a hypoallergenic formula due to a milk protein allergy,” Bledsoe said. “Due to WIC’s very specific guidelines about what kind of formula I can get it with my benefits, it has made it extremely difficult to find the brand of formula that my daughter originally started going well on once I had to stop breastfeeding. I’ve had to switch between three different brands of hypoallergenic formula just to be able to get my daughter what she needs to eat each day.”
Bledsoe said she traveled as far as Columbus to find formula during the shortage.
Waller’s division in Montgomery County serves 7,400 families, who typically receive one month’s supply at a time. WIC serves about half of all infants born in the United States.
Waller said WIC families are hit the hardest by the shortage because they don’t have the resources to pay out of pocket for formula, or search extensively for what they need because of transportation issues.
“There is formula out there but it is hit or miss,” Waller said. “So it’s a matter of if a family can find it and if they can find it first.”
Waller is optimistic that things are headed in the right direction.
“We need to make sure babies are fed because truly, that first year of life, it’s life and death,” Waller said.
Turner wouldn’t say if this bill will have the support it needs to pass, but believes the reasoning speaks for itself.
“This is a problem that can be fixed, and that’s what this legislation is intended to do,” Turner said.
