192 Republicans Decide They’d Like Formula-Seeking Parents to Keep Suffering

In the midst of a full-blown crisis for parents who need formula to feed their children, more than 90% of House Republicans decided on Wednesday that the shortage that has led to panic and despair is not actually that big a deal, with 192 (out of 208) GOP lawmakers voting against an emergency spending bill meant to address the terrifying situation. Sorry, babies! Them’s the breaks.

While the bill, H.R. 7790, ultimately passed, it was no thanks to the cartoonishly evil Republican lawmakers, who’d reportedly been urged by House minority whip Steve Scalise to vote “nay,” having claimed that Nancy Pelosi pushed the bill “in hopes of covering up the administration’s ineptitude by throwing additional money at the FDA with no plan to actually fix the problem, all while failing to hold the FDA accountable.” The legislation—which was voted on the same day the White House said that Joe Biden had invoked the Defense Production Act to expedite the production and delivery of formula—provides $28 million in funding to the Food and Drug Administration for inspections of formula manufactured at foreign plants and to prevent shortages stemming from supply chain disruptions. Among those shooting down the bill? Florida representative Kat Cammack, who last week tweeted a photo of formula at a U.S. border detention center and decried the fact that babies of migrants detained by the U.S. government were being fed, as is required by law. Cammack, of course, is just one of many Republicans, including the famously shameless Tom Cotton and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have been more than happy to highlight the formula shortage and blame Biden for it—which, based on Republicans’ actions on Wednesday, was apparently purely for show.

But H.R. 7790 wasn’t the only formula bill voted on yesterday that a contingent of Republicans tried to stymie. There was also H.R. 7791, which passed with 414 yes votes despite the nays of GOP representatives Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Greene, Andy Biggs, Thomas Massie, Clay Higgins, Chip Roy, Paul Gosar, and Louie Gohmert. The legislation, introduced by Representative Jahana Hayes, helps poor women access more formula through the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which is apparently a bridge too far for these supposedly “pro-life” conservatives. The formula crisis comes amid the news that the Supreme Court is likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, a move Republicans have cheered, which fits with their long-time m.o. of only caring about the “sanctity“ of life up until that life exits the womb, after which it’s on its own.

The bills will now go to the Senate, where…at least some Republican lawmakers have preemptively made clear they don’t know how supply and demand, among other things, work:

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On Thursday, Pelosi blasted her colleagues across the aisle, asking, “What’s the objection? That we don’t want to spend money on babies who are crying for food? Ok, let’s have that debate.”