Senate health committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) pledged to support President Donald Trump’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nominee, Dr. Erica Schwartz, after nearly a week of uncertainty over whether Cassidy would join with Democrats to block her over doubts about her support for encouraging the public to get vaccinated.
Cassidy said, after speaking with Schwartz again following her rocky confirmation hearing on July 15, that he is “confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not.”
Schwartz received strong pushback from Democrats and some centrist Republicans, including Cassidy, during her confirmation hearing after she dodged questions on whether she would stand up to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding vaccines.
Schwartz said multiple times that she did not believe the HHS secretary or the president would pressure her to make unscientific decisions on vaccine guidance.
Several senators brought up during the hearing that Susan Monarez, Schwartz’s predecessor in the top CDC role, testified last summer that Kennedy fired her for refusing to pre-approve reductions in the childhood vaccine schedule, following the advice of the advisory committee he personally selected.
Monarez was Trump’s second pick for CDC director but the first one to make it through the Senate confirmation process in July 2025. She served in the role for less than a month before clashing with Kennedy, who was a well-known skeptic of vaccines before entering office.
Cassidy said that his meeting with Schwartz, along with the CDC’s promise to remove statements on its website that cast doubt on whether vaccines cause autism, assuaged his initial concerns.
“CDC needs someone who understands that the way to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases is to reassure the public that vaccines are safe and effective,” Cassidy said, citing the 35-year high in measles cases this year.
As of Thursday afternoon, the CDC website still has a disclaimer that infant vaccines have not been sufficiently tested to determine whether they are involved in the development of autism in children.
Cassidy has had high-profile conflicts with Trump’s public health nominees. He voted for Kennedy only after tense hearings and major pressure from Trump and the Make America Healthy Again movement. Nevertheless, Trump endorsed Cassidy’s opponent in Louisiana’s Republican Senate primary, and Cassidy lost his seat.
Schwartz is a conventional CDC pick. She served as Trump’s deputy surgeon general during his first term from 2019 to 2021, during which she led the federal government’s COVID-19 testing programs, including drive-through virus testing.
Before that, Schwartz served in the Public Health Services Commission Corps for 24 years. She also holds a law degree and a Master of Public Health.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the top Democrat on the committee, said that while he admired Schwartz’s educational pedigree, he could not support her nomination for CDC director.
“Will we have people in the Trump administration who have the guts to stand up to people who are anti-science and into conspiracy theories? And I am afraid that right now, within HHS, we have a secretary who will not tolerate dissent,” Sanders said.
Schwartz’s confirmation vote was postponed until next week due to the absence of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who was tending to a family emergency. Schwartz would have needed at least one Democrat to break ranks to support her nomination to advance to the full Senate.
The committee was also originally scheduled to vote on the nomination of Sean Kaufman to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. But early Thursday morning, Kaufman’s name was removed from the schedule.
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During his confirmation hearing, which was held simultaneously with Schwartz’s, Kaufman struggled to answer questions regarding his history of vaccine skepticism, particularly for the Hepatitis B vaccine for newborns.
A spokesperson for the committee told reporters, “There are ongoing conversations with the administration on the path forward for Mr. Kaufman’s nomination.”
Senate reporter Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.