Twitter / Chip Roy
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy's district includes San Antonio, one of the cities hardest hit by the national formula shortage.
U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Louie Gohmert of Texas were
among nine House Republicans who voted against a bill meant to make it easier for low-income parents to buy baby formula while the nation suffers a crisis-level shortage.
The Access to Baby Formula Act, passed Wednesday with broad bipartisan support, would let low-income families purchase additional formula through the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) food program. Lawmakers passed the proposal as parents nationwide struggle to find formula on store shelves to feed their infants.
Roy represents a district that spans from Austin to San Antonio, the latter a city shown in a recent study to be among the nation's hardest hit by the formula shortage. Gohmert's district is in East Texas. The two firebrands joined controversial House Republicans including Laurent Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia in voting against the measure.
In a
statement supplied to Newsweek, Roy said he rejected the bill because it didn't fix "crony policies" that don't allow more companies to produce baby formula. He also argued the bill would "empower a demonstrably incompetent executive branch" while flowing taxpayer money into the Food and Drug Administration.
Roy, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, has made a political brand out of blocking bipartisan legislation. Last summer, he was
captured on video telling supporters he "[doesn't] vote for anything in the House" because he wants "18 more months of chaos" to damage Democrats' chances of holding onto Congress.
On Wednesday, the House also passed a second proposal intended to shorten the formula crisis. That bill would provide $28 million in emergency appropriations to help the FDA deal with the current shortage and avert future ones.
That bill passed 231 to 192 vote. Roy and Gohmert voted against it too.
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