{"id":15028,"date":"2026-07-23T21:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15028"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:00:06","slug":"trumps-cdc-nominee-erica-schwartz-gets-key-support-on-capitol-hill-from-bill-cassidy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15028","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s CDC Nominee Erica Schwartz Gets Key Support on Capitol Hill from Bill Cassidy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5744983\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5744983\" class=\"wp-image-5744983 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4.jpg\" alt=\"erica schwartz, bill cassidy composite\" width=\"1250\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5744983\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mariam Zuhaib, J. Scott Applewhite\/AP Photos<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>President <strong>Donald Trump&#8217;s<\/strong> latest nominee to head the Centers for Disease Control garnered key support on Capitol Hill Thursday when Sen. <strong>Bill Cassidy<\/strong> (R-LA) indicated she had his vote.<\/p>\n<p>Trump nominated <strong>Erica Schwartz<\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apha.org\/news-and-media\/news-releases\/apha-news-releases\/nomination-of-erica-schwartz-to-lead-cdc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a US Coast Guard veteran and physician who served as former Deputy Surgeon General<\/a>, to lead the CDC in April.<\/p>\n<p>Schwartz, 54, appeared to frustrate senators who questioned her during a confirmation hearing last week on whether she would be willing to stand up to Health and Human Services Secretary <strong>Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/strong> and his anti-vaccine stance.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Schwartz told the committee she would &#8220;never betray the science,&#8221; claimed she did not know CDC programs promoting vaccines had been curtailed, and would not say if she would take down a CDC website claiming a potential link between childhood vaccines and autism, saying she hadn&#8217;t seen it,\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/cdc-director-erica-schwartz-25b3317e2ce111ba399ce8dc9697b983\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/gop-senator-defends-himself-after-he-was-reported-yelling-at-trump-im-not-gonna-be-bullied-into-silence\/\">Cassidy<\/a>, who cast the key vote to confirm RFK Jr. as HHS secretary, had been quiet for days on whether he would back Schwartz. His support would advance Schwartz&#8217; nomination out of the committee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After speaking with Dr. Schwartz again after the hearing, reviewing the transcript, and speaking to those who have served with her and \u200bknow her well, I&#8217;m confident that she knows what she&#8217;s doing and will stand \u200bagainst those who do not,&#8221; Cassidy said during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/cassidy-signals-support-trump-us-cdc-nominee-schwartz-2026-07-23\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a meeting of \u200cthe Senate \u2060Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As of Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vaccine-safety\/about\/autism.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the CDC site on vaccines<\/a> still contained a caution that the statement &#8220;&#8216;vaccines do not cause autism&#8217; is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCDC needs someone who understands that the way to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases is to reassure the public that vaccines are safe and effective,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/23\/congress\/cdc-erica-schwartz-cassidy-rfk-vaccines-01009324\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cassidy said on Thursday, according to Politico.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m confident that she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/trumps-cdc-nominee-erica-schwartz-gets-key-support-on-capitol-hill-from-bill-cassidy\/\">Trump\u2019s CDC Nominee Erica Schwartz Gets Key Support on Capitol Hill from Bill Cassidy<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mariam Zuhaib, J. Scott Applewhite\/AP Photos President Donald Trump&#8217;s latest nominee to head the Centers for Disease Control garnered key support on Capitol Hill Thursday when Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) indicated she had his vote. Trump nominated Erica Schwartz, a US Coast Guard veteran and physician who served as former Deputy Surgeon General, to lead&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}