The Senate health committee cleared Dr. Erica Schwartz's nomination to lead the CDC in a near party-line vote, but only after Chairman Bill Cassidy secured promises that science, not ideology, would guide the battered agency.

Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, cast the decisive vote Thursday to send Schwartz's nomination to the full Senate floor. His support came after weeks of pointed questioning about whether the 54-year-old physician and attorney would stand up to political pressure inside the Department of Health and Human Services, and after HHS officials agreed to modify a CDC webpage that had cast doubt on the scientific consensus that vaccines do not cause autism.

If the full Senate confirms her, Schwartz would become the 22nd director of the Atlanta-based agency, and the third person President Trump has tapped for the job in the past 18 months. The first two attempts ended in failure. Former Florida congressman David Weldon saw his March 2025 hearing canceled an hour before it was scheduled to begin after he was told not enough senators would vote for him. Susan Monarez, who had been serving as acting director, was confirmed by the Senate but then fired in less than a month. Trump administration officials said she was not aligned with the president's agenda.

Cassidy's follow-up meeting broke the logjam

Schwartz's hearing earlier this month left key questions hanging. She pledged to "never betray the science," but she repeatedly declined to dissent from some of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s actions. She told senators she was unaware that CDC programs working to prevent smoking and promote vaccinations had been curtailed. And she declined to commit to taking down the CDC website suggesting a link between childhood vaccines and autism, saying she had not seen it, though she agreed that existing medical evidence has not found such a link.

The National Public Health Coalition, an organization of current and former CDC workers, was not satisfied. In a statement, the group said the public "needed to hear clear commitments about how she would protect CDC guidance from political pressure. Too often, her stated commitments were incomplete, vague, or missing."

Cassidy, a physician himself, shared some of those concerns. But he said he spoke with Schwartz after the hearing and with others who knew her, and came away reassured. The Washington Examiner reported that a follow-up meeting between Cassidy and Schwartz resolved his vaccine-related concerns, and that the CDC's promise to remove anti-vaccine language from its website helped secure his backing.

Cassidy framed his decision in direct terms, telling colleagues that the CDC "needs someone who understands that the way to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases is to reassure the public that vaccines are safe and effective."

He added: "I'm confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, voted no. His objection was blunt:

"The issue at hand is not complicated. 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?"

Schwartz brings conventional credentials to a turbulent agency

Whatever her critics say about her hearing performance, Schwartz's résumé is not the profile of a fringe pick. She holds medical and law degrees, graduated from Brown University, and earned a master's in public health. She served as deputy surgeon general during Trump's first term from 2019 to 2021 and led federal COVID-19 testing programs. She also held a leadership position at the U.S. Coast Guard. Fox News reported that Trump announced additional CDC leadership appointments alongside her nomination, including a deputy director, a chief medical officer, and a senior counselor for public health.

Kennedy himself endorsed her nomination, saying he looked forward to working with Schwartz "to restore trust, accountability, and scientific integrity at the agency so we can return it to its core mission." Sen. Tommy Tuberville called her "a great CDC Director" and said he looked forward to voting for her confirmation.

But the nomination also drew fire from the other direction. Just The News reported that vaccine skeptics criticized Schwartz's record of supporting and implementing vaccine mandates during her time as deputy surgeon general, noting she signed at least three military vaccine mandate memos. Vaccine injury lawyer Aaron Siri said the agency "does not need another cheerleader for industry; it needs a regulator over industry."

That tension, a nominee acceptable enough to win over a cautious Senate Republican chairman while drawing complaints from both the public health establishment and the medical-freedom movement, may say more about the difficulty of the job than about Schwartz herself. The CDC she would inherit has been hollowed out. The agency has lost more than 3,000 employees since Trump returned to office, more than one-quarter of its workforce, largely through layoffs and resignations. Its front office is staffed by political appointees with little or no training in medicine or public health.

The confirmation fits a broader pattern in which the Senate has moved to fill key administration posts. In a similar party-line vote, senators confirmed Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair earlier this year, showing the chamber's willingness to deliver on the president's nominees when party discipline holds.

Kaufman's nomination drew sharper rebukes, even from Cassidy

The committee also advanced Sean Kaufman's nomination for assistant health secretary for preparedness and response, the post that oversees preparations for public health emergencies and decisions about funding next-generation vaccines against pandemic flu and other infectious disease threats. That vote was strictly party-line.

Cassidy did not hide his reservations. He told the committee that "Mr. Kaufman has said some pretty stupid things and irresponsible things regarding immunization." Kaufman had made LinkedIn posts arguing against hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns, said he served as an expert witness advocating for people who refused the COVID-19 vaccine, and supported the Trump administration's decision to cancel projects developing vaccines using mRNA technology.

Cassidy said he voted to advance Kaufman only after HHS officials assured him that if confirmed, Kaufman "will not be involved in vaccine policy and nor will he be the ultimate decision-maker on certain issues." Cassidy added that he had been told personnel changes were being made at HHS to provide "better oversight to ensure that science, not ideology, is driving decision-making."

Sanders was less diplomatic. "I think the American people are owed better than what President Trump has nominated," he said.

The dynamic around Kaufman's confirmation underscores a recurring challenge as Trump continues to fill key administration posts across the federal government, nominees who generate friction even within the president's own party, requiring side deals and written assurances to get through committee.

A CDC webpage tells a different story than HHS promised

One of Cassidy's stated conditions for supporting Schwartz involved a CDC webpage that had suggested a possible link between childhood vaccines and autism. Cassidy said last week that HHS officials had modified the page "as a sign of good faith." But Newsmax reported that as of this week, the page continued to argue that "vaccines do not cause autism" is not an evidence-based claim, despite numerous studies finding no such link.

That gap between what HHS promised and what the CDC website still says is worth watching. Cassidy staked his credibility on assurances from department officials. If those assurances do not hold, the chairman who made Schwartz's nomination possible will have reason to revisit his trust.

Kennedy's broader moves on vaccine policy have already drawn judicial scrutiny. A federal judge put on hold some of Kennedy's efforts to substantially rewrite vaccine recommendations for children, actions that had frustrated Cassidy, who initially signed off on Kennedy's appointment only after Kennedy promised not to change childhood vaccine recommendations.

Senate dynamics remain fluid as well. The absence of senior members dealing with health issues can affect vote counts on close confirmations, and Schwartz's path to the full Senate floor is not guaranteed to be smooth.

Four leadership vacancies and a workforce in retreat

Even if Schwartz clears the full Senate, she will step into an agency missing much of its leadership. The CDC director post has been filled by a rotating cast of HHS officials serving in an acting capacity since Monarez was terminated. The surgeon general position is vacant. The FDA commissioner post is empty. And the assistant health secretary for preparedness and response slot, the one Kaufman has been tapped to fill, remains open pending his own confirmation.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said in a recent interview that Schwartz is qualified, might be able to rebuild the CDC's depleted command structure, and could start to rebuild public trust by focusing on bipartisan concerns such as foodborne disease outbreaks. He acknowledged disagreeing with how she answered several questions at her hearing but continued to support her nomination. He interpreted her performance as someone trying to please different factions.

Dr. Daniel Jernigan, a former top CDC official who resigned in August, was more direct about the stakes. He said that without a confirmed director, "it will mean a continued rudderless journey for CDC." He added that "having to start over is probably what he wants, many more months with no one stopping him from pursuing the same anti-science and anti-vaccine efforts he has been pursuing." Jernigan did not name Kennedy, but the reference was plain.

Breitbart reported that the committee vote cleared a key hurdle toward Schwartz's full Senate confirmation, noting the same near party-line split that has characterized recent health policy fights on Capitol Hill.

Trump has continued to shape the Senate's composition and priorities, and the Schwartz vote is another test of whether the chamber's Republican majority can hold together on nominees who draw crossfire from both the left and the medical-freedom right.

The CDC has spent 18 months without a Senate-confirmed director, lost a quarter of its workforce, and cycled through three nominees. At some point, the cost of leaving the nation's top public health agency leaderless stops being a staffing problem and starts being an accountability one, and the people who pay that cost are the Americans the agency exists to protect.