{"id":29200,"date":"2026-08-06T01:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29200"},"modified":"2026-08-06T01:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:10:07","slug":"senate-confirms-schwartz-for-cdc-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29200","title":{"rendered":"Senate confirms Schwartz for CDC director"},"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<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/6S8Hf3UVY9bZGTtJu5AG6aE6EUc=\/0x0:4000x2250\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/04\/1785847478704.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Senate confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/30\/senate-panel-approves-cdc-nominee-schwartz-kaufman\" target=\"_blank\">Erica Schwartz<\/a> for Centers for Disease Control director on Wednesday, giving the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/08\/28\/cdc-walkout-protest-resignations-rfk-hhs\" target=\"_blank\">beleaguered<\/a> agency its first full-time political leader in almost a year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> While the 51-44 vote marked a step toward refilling the depleted ranks of the Trump administration&#8217;s health care leadership, it didn&#8217;t fully resolve questions about whether Schwartz could steer clear of political interference.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news:<\/strong> Just one Democrat \u2014 Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.) \u2014 supported Schwartz&#8217;s nomination, along with all of the Republicans present. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;She&#8217;s got the qualifications for the job,&#8221; Kaine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/07\/27\/congress\/kaine-cdc-erica-schwartz-cassidy-measles-cyclosporiasis-01013198\" target=\"_blank\">told Politico<\/a> last week after voting to advance Schwartz&#8217;s nomination out of committee. Schwartz is a physician who worked at the Department of Health and Human Services during the first Trump administration. <\/li>\n<li>Senate health committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who had been skeptical of Schwartz, said he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/24\/health-nominations-stall-senate-committee\" target=\"_blank\">decided to support her<\/a> after being assured through their conversations that &#8220;she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Context:<\/strong> Schwartz faced tough questioning during her July 15 confirmation hearing over whether she could chart a course for the public health agency and work with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She vowed to rebuild trust in the CDC but hedged on whether she would tell Congress if she was told to adopt &#8220;unscientific&#8221; or harmful policies, saying she didn&#8217;t believe either President Trump or Kennedy would do that.<\/li>\n<li>Many public health leaders initially applauded her nomination, but some said they could not support Schwartz after her confirmation hearing, <a href=\"https:\/\/insidemedicine.substack.com\/p\/she-blew-it-cdc-director-nominee\" target=\"_blank\">saying<\/a> she failed to give clear answers to simple questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Schwartz was Trump&#8217;s third<\/strong> nominee to lead the CDC, following Susan Monarez, who was fired after less than a month in the role. She claimed she was dismissed for refusing to rubber-stamp Kennedy&#8217;s vaccine policies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The former deputy surgeon general was viewed as a less polarizing pick. But policy experts say she&#8217;ll face challenges stabilizing an agency that&#8217;s lacked a full-time political leader for almost a year and is beset by morale and staffing problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Senate hasn&#8217;t yet scheduled<\/strong> a vote on whether to confirm Sean Kaufman for HHS assistant health secretary for preparedness and response. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Kaufman also seems poised to get confirmed, despite lingering questions about past <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2026\/07\/10\/sean-kaufman-hhs-nominee-past-statements-question-vaccine-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\">anti-vaccine statements<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Before the health committee approved Kaufman&#8217;s nomination last month,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/30\/senate-panel-approves-cdc-nominee-schwartz-kaufman\" target=\"_blank\"> Cassidy said<\/a> he got a few concessions from HHS to justify his support, including &#8220;key personnel changes&#8221; \u2014 which he never specified \u2014 and assurances that Kaufman won&#8217;t be involved in vaccine policy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\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>The Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz for Centers for Disease Control director on Wednesday, giving the beleaguered agency its first full-time political leader in almost a year. Why it matters: While the 51-44 vote marked a step toward refilling the depleted ranks of the Trump administration&#8217;s health care leadership, it didn&#8217;t fully resolve questions about whether&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/6S8Hf3UVY9bZGTtJu5AG6aE6EUc=\/0x0:4000x2250\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/04\/1785847478704.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29200","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=29200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}