Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Sunday said the nationwide shortage of baby formula has the attention of the “highest levels” in the Joe Biden administration, including the president.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Buttigieg noted he, as a new father of two babies, is well aware of the strain and anxiety the shortage has caused.
"I think about what that would be like if you're a shift worker with two jobs, maybe you don't have a car, you literally don't have the time or the money to be going from store to store,” he said. “That's why this is such a serious issue and that's why it's getting attention at the highest levels, including, of course, direct involvement by the president."
Buttigieg said the administration acted from day one after the February recall of baby formula at a Sturgis, Mich., factory run by Abbott Nutrition after four babies suffered bacterial infections after consuming formula from the facility.
The action included “taking steps like creating more flexibility for the WIC program to help rebalance the availability of formula in the states,” he said.
“There are more actions that are underway, including looking at imports,” he continued. “But fundamentally, we are here because a company was not able to guarantee that its plant was safe. And that plant has shut down.”
He said getting the plant up and running is “the most important thing to do right now.”
“That's the work that's going on between the company and the [Food and Drug Administration],” he added. “It's got to be safe and it's got to be up and running as soon as possible. But this is the difference between a supply chain problem, in other words, a problem about moving goods around, and a supply problem which has to do with whether they're being produced in the first place. Now, the administration's also been working with other companies to try to surge their production. That's led to an increase in production, which is helping to compensate.”
According to Buttigieg, Americans are “feeling the pinch” on many products, and the administration is taking action on those issues too.
“One thing that we know is that we're in this moment where we're seeing that Americans are feeling the pinch on product after product,” he said. “And some companies have become ridiculously profitable, notably including oil companies, which have specifically said they're not going to use the permits and the production capacity that they have. Why would they? They're incredibly profitable right now. They're not complaining. They're not unhappy about the situation. The public is unhappy. The president is unhappy and we're taking action.”
The administration also wants to “create options” for more affordable travel.
“What we want to do is create options for Americans to be able to get where they're going more affordably,” he said. “It's why we up the fuel economy standards, so that by the 2026 model year, the cars will be so much more efficient. If you have a gas car that you used to have to fill up four times a month, it might be three now. Of course, we're also working to make electric vehicles more affordable because that has a huge benefit, especially in terms of protecting families from these kinds of price volatility.”
He said the administration knows it has to be lowering other costs for Americans as well, but accused Republicans of often standing in the way.
“This is the most important thing I think we need to take a hard look at right now when we're fighting inflation with everything that we've got, that we made the case to lower the cost of insulin to $35 and faced basically unified Republican opposition,” he said. “Tried to lower the cost of prescription drugs and were blocked from doing so by congressional Republicans who then come around and want to talk about inflation without offering a plan.”