Senators Warner and Kaine talk baby formula shortage and Ukraine conflict

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The baby formula shortage and how to solve it is at the top of a lot of lawmaker’s to-do lists.

U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine say the heart of the problem lies within the supply chain. The two Democratic senators from Virginia say America’s supply chain model has to improve, and fast.

“We need to make sure that we have a domestic supply chain, or at least a supply chain from friendly allied nations on all critical components,” Sen. Warner said.

“The Biden administration is making some other changes to supply chain so that we can hopefully facilitate not just production, but then getting baby formula to communities that most needed,” Sen. Kaine said.

Both senators believe one of the issues with shortage of baby formula is due to an inadequate number of federal inspectors: There are only seven inspectors for the whole county.

“If we’re going to try to make sure we get more production back online in a way that’s safe we’re going to need to beef up some additional FDA inspectors,” Warner said.

Both senators also provided an update on the Russian invasion of Ukraine: “We have to do all we can to support this effort of a free nation to defend itself against an illegal invasion by Vladimir Putin,” Kaine said.

An aid package worth $40 billion will be voted on Thursday, May 19.

“When we pass this assistance, our total military assistance plus the European military assistance will approach funding Ukrainians just on the military side at close to $50 billion,” Warner said.

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