Senate Panel to Hear CDC Director Nominee Amid Trump-Era Sabotage
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
President Trump's pick for CDC director, retired Rear Admiral Erica Schwartz, faces a Senate hearing as the agency reels from years of staff cuts and political interference orchestrated by the administration.
Retired Rear Admiral Erica Schwartz, President Trump's nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is scheduled to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday. This hearing marks Schwartz's first public appearance since her nomination in mid-April, and comes at a time when the CDC has been left leaderless for most of the Trump administration’s second term—an absence that has only deepened the agency’s crisis.
Schwartz, a former chief medical officer of the U.S. Coast Guard and deputy surgeon general, holds degrees in medicine, law, and public health. If confirmed, she would serve under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose controversial attempts to undermine vaccine policy have already been rebuffed in the courts.
Public-health officials, desperate for stability after years of right-wing attacks on science, have expressed cautious optimism about Schwartz’s candidacy. “People are very optimistic about her candidacy and are supportive of her potentially being in the role,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, district health director for Fulton County, Georgia. “What we really need right now is a CDC director who can step in and be a spokesperson on some of the emerging issues we’re facing.”
Schwartz will inherit an agency battered by deliberate staff reductions, plummeting morale, and relentless political meddling. Internal emails released by Senator Bernie Sanders have exposed how the previous director, Susan Monarez, was pressured to prioritize political oversight over scientific integrity in major CDC policies.
During a tense internal CDC meeting, deputy director and chief operating officer Sean Slovenski acknowledged the high stress levels among employees, promising a reorganization that would at least bring clarity, if not satisfaction. “I’m not promising that everyone will be happy. What I’m promising is that everyone will be clear,” he said.
The Wednesday session will also consider the confirmation of Sean Kaufman as Assistant Secretary for Strategic Preparedness and Response at HHS, another position critical to undoing the damage of recent years.