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What is Defense Production Act? Biden slammed for invoking act 'TOO LATE' amid baby formula crisis

The FDA reached an agreement this week that Abott Nutrition can resume its production, but it will take weeks for the product to be back on the shelves

President Joe Biden on Wednesday, May 18, invoked the Defense Production Act in an attempt to boost baby formula production. He has also issued a directive for planes to bring in supplies from overseas. This step comes after increasing pressure from Congress. 

Besides invoking this law, Biden announced 'Operation Fly Formula', which will provide directions to Defense Department and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) resources for loading planes with formula that meets FDA safety standards from other countries so that they can be brought back to parents in America, who have expressed continuous outrage and disappointment over little being done to address the crisis. For the formula to be transported back to the US, the Defense Department will use its contracts with commercial airlines.

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The baby formula problem is the result of supply chain disruptions and a safety recall. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers on February 17 to avoid some powdered baby formula products from a Sturgis, Michigan facility run by Abbott Nutrition, which then initiated a voluntary recall. Earlier this year, four babies were hospitalized after eating contaminated formula after the Abbott facility allegedly flouted FDA hygiene procedures. One of the babies even died. 

Subsequently, manufacturer Abbott announced a 'voluntary recall' for formula, which is made at its factory in Michigan. That location was shut down. However, an investigation later cleared the formula and the FDA reached an agreement this week that Abott can resume its production. It will, however, take weeks for the product to be back on the shelves. 

New data obtained by the Daily Mail has revealed that parents in Tennessee are the hardest hit by the baby formula shortage. The second to be hit is President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware. In Tennessee, 54.71 percent of the state's usual supply is out of stock, while the figures in Delaware and Texas are 54.51 percent and 52.01 percent respectively. The data was obtained from Datasembly from the first week in May. Datasembly collects real-time data from 11,000 grocery stores nationwide and calculates the shortages per state. Significantly hit by the crisis are also Montana and Nevada. With 26.36 percent of the usual supply being out of stock, Colorado was reporting the fewest problems. The only other states to have supply outages at less than 30 percent were New Mexico and Indiana.

What is Defense Production Act?

Originally passed in 1950, the Defense Production Act (DPA) is a law that gives power to the US President to order companies to produce goods and supply services in an attempt to support national defense. The law was first used during the Korean War. However, over the past few decades, the law has been adapted so it can be used to respond to challenges beyond war preparations as well. It has been enlisted to help the country recover from natural disasters, energy security, public health, and even to protect against terrorism. During the Korean war, it was used to establish a large defense mobilization infrastructure and bureaucracy.

Former US Presidents Harry S Truman to Barack Obama delegated DPA powers to various parts of the government. Obama assigned DPA authority to sixteen federal departments and agencies in a 2012 executive order. 

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration used the DPA to order General Motors to produce ventilators and 3M to produce N95 respirator masks for the federal government. Former President Trump also directed his administration o increase the domestic production capacity of essential health products. He used DPA powers to make sure meat processing plants remain open. 

Besides the Korean War, the coronavirus pandemic and now the baby formula shortage, DPA has also been used during the Cold War to establish the domestic aluminum and titanium industries in the 1950s. Beginning in the 1980s, the law was also used to provide seed money to develop new technologies, including helping develop new technologies and materials like silicon carbide ceramics, indium phosphide and gallium arsenide semiconductors, microwave power tubes, radiationhardened microelectronics, superconducting wire, metal composites and the mining and processing of rare earth minerals.

Back in 2011, Barack Obama invoked DPA to force telecommunications companies to provide detailed information to the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security on the use of foreign-manufactured hardware and software in the companies' networks. This was part of his efforts to combat Chinese cyberespionage.

In 2017, Trump used the law to classify two sets of products as 'critical to national defense'. The first referred to 'items affecting aerospace structures and fibers, radiation-hardened microelectronics, radiation test and qualification facilities, and satellite components and assemblies'. The second referred to 'items affecting adenovirus vaccine production capability; high strength, inherently fire and ballistic resistant, co-polymer aramid fibers industrial capability; secure hybrid composite shipping container industrial capability; and three-dimensional ultra-high density microelectronics for information protection industrial capability.'

In January 2021, Biden invoked the Defense Production Act in an attempt to increase production of supplies related to the pandemic, such as protective equipment. A few months later in March, in the same year, he used the law again to supply equipment to Merck facilities needed to safely manufacture Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Biden invoked the law in September 2021 yet again, to supplement the supply of fire-hose, needed due to the high occurrence of wildfires. 

Parents' struggle amid the baby formula crisis

Desperate parents have been expressing outrage at the Biden administration after seeing the stocked shelves while they hunted for the product. The Daily Mail reported about a mother whose six-month-old son has a severe dairy allergy. She shared images of her baby's back after they were forced to switch formula brands. A father traveled to over a dozen retailers within 20 miles of his Pennsylvania home, and had to ultimately start spending nearly $600 on eBay to get the formula his child required. 

Distressed mothers also shared their ordeal with publication. "I was diagnosed with cancer when I was three months pregnant with my twins and was unable to breastfeed," mother Christina Kikola shared. "Breastfeeding is not an option for everyone." "I have had to resume pumping and breastfeeding, which limited the feasibility of me returning to the workplace," Jillian Ayorro, mother of a nearly two-year-old with allergies and special dietary needs, said.

Amid the crisis, a Utah mom began selling over 118 litres of her breast milk to those in need. “I figure I'm running out of room, so might as well help someone else. I know I have over 3,000 ounces. 3,000 ounces downstairs and almost 1,000 upstairs," she told Fox13 in an interview. 

'Way too late'

Despite Biden's effort, however, he is being criticized on social media for taking the step much later than he should have. "Liberals are idiots. For weeks they've been saying that our demand for Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act for baby formula was impossible or a just a dumb idea. If it wasn't for the pressure we put on him, the POS in the WH would never have done this. Way too late btw," one user wrote on Twitter. One user said, "Biden activates Defense Production Act on Baby formula! A little too late!", while another said, "He’s too late. He can’t be trusted to run the Country."

"I can name two things Biden has done right so far, but unfortunately, both of them came WAY too late. 1. Severe Russia sanctions 2. Defense Production Act for baby formula Biden only does things right when there is a massive public outcry over his inaction," while user wrote, while another said, "Too little too late old man. You’ve known for months and waited until children have to be hospitalized!!! You’re a cruel phuc*****." "The formula shortage was preventable. Factory farms killed livestock during pandemic because the government DIDNT buy food normally sold to shuttered restaurants…and now there’s a food shortage. Biden’s defense production act for baby formula is TWO YEARS LATE," one user echoed.