prices and soaring air fare, what to know before the busy summer travel season kicks off. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening with a nationwide shortage of baby formula testing parents who are desperate to safely feed their infants, there may be better news to report tonight. a day after the white house announced major new steps to speed supplies of formula, a clearly impatient congressional panel pressed the head of the fda as to when the formula shortage will ease dr. robert calif facing a bipartisan grilling telling lawmakers within days it will be better, but a few weeks until we re back to normal. we ve just learned the first flights carrying formula from overseas could start as soon as this weekend kristen welker has more. reporter: lester, good evening with millions of american families still desperately scrambling to find food for their babies, there was bipartisan outrage on capitol hill today, directed at the biden administrati
they have been calling on a steady basis. formula fed infants and families that can t find formula, that increased percentage is 300% those families are in crisis reporter: the lab is working overtime, first screening donors, then their milk is pooled, pasteurized, tested to make sure there s zero bacteria before being distributed to babies in need. texas has been hit particularly hard. formula out of stock rates are at 50% here. abbott nutrition whose voluntary recall and plant closure exacerbated th shortage was the primary formula provider for 85% of wic infants in the southwest region even though the usda authorized states to allow recipients to purchase alternative formulas, more than half the states do not tell parents what the substitute formulas are on their website sydney hopes a solution is on the way. how long does one pack of breast milk last