When $28 million is proposed to remedy the baby formula shortage, the ‘pro-life’ party votes against this measure. It passed anyways.
$28 million for baby formula shortage (Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022): what is it?
On Wednesday, May 18th 2022, 192 Republicans voted against providing $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration. Indeed, this funding has the aim to remedy the Baby Formula shortage in the United States.
The aid consisted of two bills. First, the House passed a bill which brought changes to the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program. Then, it voted on the $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration with the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022.
Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program: what changed?
First, the bill that the House passed allows recipients of the WIC program to buy more baby formula, and from more brands. Additionally, it lets for more formula to be bought from foreign suppliers.
This bill passed with unanimous support (414 to 9). Unsurprisingly, all of those who voted against the bill were Republicans. Furthermore, we’ll note some familiar faces in those who voted against the bill:
- Lauren Boebert;
- Matt Gaetz;
- Marjorie Taylor Greene;
- Louie Gohmert;
- Paul Gosar;
- Chip Roy;
- Clay Higgins;
- Thomas Massie;
- Andy Biggs.
The law was approved in the Senate by voice vote the following day. Indeed, the bill that the Republicans were against was the following:
$28 Million for Baby Formula votes (Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022)
This bill aims to provide $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration. Indeed, this is done in order to try to solve the current Baby Formula shortage in the U.S. Here are the number of people who voted for, against the bill, or did not vote at all:
| Votes for the $28 million for Baby Formula shortage on May 18th 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party affiliation | Yea (voted for) | Nay (voted against) | Present (was present but did not vote for or against) | No Vote (did not vote, often means they were absent) |
| Democratic | 219 | 2 | ||
| Republican | 12 | 192 | 4 | |
| Independents | ||||
| Totals | 231 | 192 | 6 | |
Out of the 221 Democrats in Congress, 2 were absent and 219 voted in favor of the bill. 100% of Democrats present that day voted in favor of the bill.
However, 192 Republicans voted against the bill, 12 voted in favor, and 4 were absent. In total 94% of Republicans present that day voted against this bill.
The bill ended up passing. The number of Republicans in the House is inferior to the number of Democrats in the House. The same applies to the number of those who were present that day. The Republicans had no chance of stopping this bill from passing, if all Democrats voted in favor (which they did).
The true size of $28 million
$28 million is a lot of money. However, in the context of the US federal budget, that amount is pocket change.
In 2022, the expected size of the US budget is $6.011 trillion. The military spending is estimated at $715 billion. That is about 25,536 times larger than the $28 million bill. In terms of percentage, the bill is slightly less than 0.00004% of the defence budget. And that’s only the defence budget, not the total federal budget.
For some perspective, if you are a student like me, it’s likely you don’t have more than $1,000 in your bank account at any given time. Then, 0.00004% of $1,000 ammounts to four cents . Wouldn’t you spend four cents to solve a baby formula shortage if you could?
