Military plane carrying 70,000 lbs. of baby formula from overseas arrives in U.S.

WASHINGTON — The first in a series of U.S. military cargo planes transporting baby formula from overseas arrived in Indiana on Sunday as Biden administration officials vowed to keep “ramping up” efforts to address nationwide shortages.

White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, making the rounds of the Sunday morning political talk shows, said the cargo plane was loaded with 70,000 pounds of specialty medical grade infant formula that was flown overnight from Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

“There’s about enough formula on that plane — specialty medical grade formula — for about a half a million bottles. That’s about 15% of the overall national volume this coming week,” Deese said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Deese told CNN’s “State of the Union” that more flights “will be coming in early this week, and we’re going to keep ramping that up.”

President Joe Biden last Wednesday invoked the Defense Production Act to help speed up the production of baby formula by requiring suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill their orders first. Biden also launched Operation Formula Fly, authorizing the importation of federally approved formula from overseas.

The White House on Sunday announced a second flight will transport 114 pallets of specialty formula to the United States later this week, and said it was using the Defense Production Act to aid formula manufacturers Abbott and Mead-Johnson in rapidly acquiring the raw ingredients needed to increase formula production.

Also on Sunday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared “a state of emergency related to the shortage of supply in infant formula.”

An executive order signed by Adams looks to crack down on price gougers by directing the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection to use its authority “to prevent the charging of excessive prices for infant formula.”

Consumers can report price gougers online at nyc.gov/dcwp or by calling 311 and stating “overcharge,” according to a statement from Adams’ office.

“The nationwide infant formula shortage has caused unimaginable pain and anxiety for families across New York — and we must act with urgency,” Adams said in a statement. “This emergency executive order will help us to crack down on any retailer looking to capitalize on this crisis by jacking up prices on this essential good. Our message to struggling mothers and families is simple: Our city will do everything in its power to assist you during this challenging period.”

For weeks, parents across the United States have grappled with formula shortages exacerbated by a recall of formula produced by Abbott Nutrition and the temporary closure of the company’s manufacturing plant in Sturgis, Michigan, due to contamination issues. The Food and Drug Administration announced last Monday that it struck a deal with Abbott to reopen the facility as long as it implemented new safety protocols.

Abbott CEO Robert Ford, in an op-ed piece published in The Washington Post on Sunday, said he expects the Sturgis plant will reopen in the first week of June, but noted that “it will take six to eight weeks before product is available on shelves.”

Ford said the company is taking other steps to alleviate the shortage, including increasing production of formula at a Columbus, Ohio, plant normally used to manufacture adult nutrition beverages, and “air-shipping millions of cans of our most widely used powdered infant formula from an FDA-approved facility in Ireland to the United States.”

“We’re sorry to every family we’ve let down since our voluntary recall exacerbated our nation’s baby formula shortage,” Ford said in the piece.

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.