CNN’s Tapper to NEC Dir. Deese: Why Was the Biden Administration So Slow to Respond to Baby Formula Crisis?

EXCERPT:

TAPPER: “The baby formula business, as you know, in the United States is dominated by three or four major players. The recall in Abbott happened back in February. President Biden only invoked the Defense Production Act last week. Why was the Biden Administration so slow to respond to this crisis?”

DEESE: “Well, we acted immediately, and here’s what happened, which is in mid-February, as you said, that Abbott facility was closed. Immediately after that, the FDA began working with the other producers. As you say, there’s too few producers in this market, we’re going to have to address that over the long term, but began working with them to ramp up their production. That got us to the point where as of last week, the other producers in the United States had gotten their production up 50 percent, 30 percent, to really record levels.”