All the Worst Republican Reps Voted Against Helping Low-Income Families During the Baby Formula Shortage
The House voted on two bills Wednesday night aimed at addressing the ongoing baby formula shortage. They both passed, no thanks to a bunch of Republicans who chose to vote against them. Because there’s nothing the “pro-life” party hates more than actually helping families and children post-birth.
The first bill provides $28 million in emergency spending funds to the FDA to prevent future shortages. “The FDA plays a critical role in ensuring formula provides the full nutritional needs of infants and that it is manufactured in the safest way possible. We must ensure that a lack of funding is not a barrier to getting safe formula to parents and babies. The bill before us does just that,” said the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut during debate.
That bill passed 219-–92. Every nay vote came from a Republican.
The second bill is the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act. This bill “would permanently loosen the restrictions on the types of formula that can be purchased by people in the federal low-income assistance program for women, children and infants,” according to The Hill. “About half of all formula in the U.S. is purchased by people in the WIC program, which relies on exclusive contracts with formula manufacturers. Abbott Nutrition products serve 89 percent of all infants participating in WIC. The legislation would let states substitute other brands or types of formula in the event of a recall or other type of disruption.”
That seems like a pretty easy sell in the middle of a crisis-level formula shortage. The bill passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan support, 414–9. Those nine nays were, of course, all Republicans, including all the worst Republican reps we have—the ones who have made it clear they have interest in anything but courting controversy and spectacle.
You know exactly who I’m talking about, I’m sure: The bizarro birdbrain squad of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert all voted against making sure poor babies have access to food.
BREAKING: The House votes 414-9 in favor of a bill ensuring access to baby formula with low-income women, infants, and children (WIC) benefits during this shortage.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) May 19, 2022
All 9 NO votes were Republicans, including Boebert, Gaetz, Gohmert, Gosar, Massie, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Other nay votes included Rep. Paul Gosar, who has promoted white nationalism and who made that creepy anime murder fantasy video about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last year, along with Andy Biggs, who defended Gosar at the time, saying the video was fine and he should know because he “lived in Japan for several years.”
There was also aggressive anti-masker Louie Gohmert, Clay Higgins, who once posted a video of himself talking about Homeland Security and the American military from inside the gas chamber at Auschwitz, Thomas Massie, who quoted a neo-Nazi on Twitter earlier this year, and Chip Roy, who praised lynching during an anti-Asian violence hearing.
These are the members of Congress who know there are millions of families struggling to feed their babies right now, and actively worked to keep it that way.
(image: Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
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