FMCSA Announces State of Emergency for Baby Formula

If you have been following the news at all, there is a good chance you have heard about the baby formula shortage going on in the United States. On May 18th, Joe Biden announced his plan to use the Defense Production Act to leverage governmental powers to get more baby formula produced. One such example of this is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announcing a State of Emergency to help produce more baby formula.

Details

At a glance, one may be confused as to why an additional State of Emergency would be needed for baby formula when there is already a Declaration regarding COVID-19. After all, the other Declaration says that it applies to “food, paper products, and other groceries for emergency restocking of distribution centers or stores.” However, this language would only apply to finished baby formula heading to the store.

What the federal government wants to have happen is ramp up production of baby formula, which means hours-of-service suspensions for raw ingredients of baby formula being shipped to production facilities, such as:

• Corn syrup.
• Whey.
• Containers and packaging.

The declaration follows the standard procedures for hours-of-service suspensions. Most notably, “nothing in this Emergency Declaration shall be construed as a waiver of or exemption from any applicable requirements or any portion of the FMCSRs or other regulations for which relief is not specifically granted herein.. This means that shipping corn syrup to a production plant does not excuse reckless behavior such as running red lights or speeding.

Conclusion

The Declaration is set to expire at the end of June, but may be extended if necessary, as has been done with the COVID-19 State of Emergency since March 2020. Only time will tell what is to come.

With baby formula getting its own Declaration to increase production, it may one day become a reality that other products will get a State of Emergency, such as copper wiring. Georgia has already announced an all-encompassing State of Emergency for supply chain issues, it will be interesting to see if the federal government follows in its footsteps.

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