able to intervene earlier with these formula manufacturers. we did a deep dive on this yesterday, and that slow diving in, right, by the fda on this, certainly a factor. only four producers in the whole country, one produces close to half of all the baby formula, they shut down, that s a big impact. restrictions on foreign imports. is there going to be an effort in congress with democratic control to address the longer term issues? i don t think there is any question we have to do that. when you consider all the consolidation that has happened throughout corporate america, but especially when it comes to food-related companies, you can t have a circumstance going forward where families are awake at night worried about whether or not their baby going to get formula because of that kind of consolidation. you got one company controlling 50% of the market. so i think that has to be the subject of not just focus, but hearings and legislation. and in the near term, of course,
under growing pressure, president biden now taking dramatic action to address the nationwide baby formula shortage. on tuesday he invoked the defense production act, requiring suppliers of key formula ingredients to prioritize delivery to formula manufacturers. i ve done everything that is safe baby formula. reporter: the president launching operation fly formula. ordering the military to direct planes to transport formula to the u.s. from other countries. these drastic measures usually reserved for war time coming after the crisis had been going on for months. leading to anger from voters and desperation from parents. that is the one goal in as a parent, to make sure our parent has what they need. reporter: even some democrats say the administration should have aced sooner. i give everybody an f on the entire spectrum of this. nobody focused on this like they
correspondent elizabeth cohen is joining us for this. the biden administration announced major interventions. what is being done? so the biden administration says that they are taking action to alleviate this shortage. lots of questions on how quickly this will work. let s take a look at the measures that they say they are taking. they say they re invoking the defense production act. that allows them to direct ingredients that could go a variety of places to go to formula manufacturers. also the fda says it s making it easier to import formula to the u.s. we don t usually import very much formula. so this is sort of a whole new thing. operation fly formula is a department of defense initiative to expedite formula imports by plane. and fda and abbott have agreed on steps needed to take to open up that shuttered michigan plant. you ll notice that the wording in here, a lot of this is taking steps to making plans to. this these steps are not
coordinator to work with formula manufacturers. meanwhile, any moment now, the fda commissioner is going to be testifying before a house committee where he s expected to be asked about how this shortage happened and how it s being fixed. joining us now, nbc s josh lederman from the vitali. dr. redletter, at least two children have already been hospitalized in tennessee because their parents couldn t find the formula they needed. how important is formula? formula is important for moms choosing not to breast-feed, which would be preferable, but i think we should not have parents be panicking about this. when a baby is 6 months old, it s perfectly fine, temporarily, to use cow s milk,
legitimacy of the last election. and then finally they cast bids to join nato and fight against russian aggression. ! hello there, welcome to meet the press daily. the last 24 hours have seen a full court press from the white house. his allies on a kitchen table issue that is suddenly a huge problem. the shortage of baby formula. that kitchen table is getting crowded for issues of concern. gas prices, inflation, recession, all concerns as well. the white house invoked the defense production act to compel suppliers to up resources for formula manufacturers. they re trying to air lift formula into the counry from overseas. there is plenty of action on can