By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the CDC moved closer to confirmation on Thursday after the Republican chairman of a key Senate committee signaled he would support her, reversing course after questioning whether she would stand up to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy.
Senate health committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, whose vote is likely the deciding one, signaled he backed the nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency reeling from months of leadership turmoil.
The committee on Thursday postponed a vote until next week, a committee spokesperson said, citing attendance issues.
“I’m confident that she knows what she’s doing and will stand against those who do not,” Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician, said in his opening statement at a meeting of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
His remarks marked a shift from last week’s confirmation hearing, when he repeatedly pressed Schwartz on whether she would exert full control over the agency and stand up to Kennedy on vaccines, including by removing officials seeking to link vaccines to autism.
Schwartz declined to say whether she would defy Kennedy, frustrating senators, including Cassidy, who are weighing whether the CDC can secure stable, independent leadership after months of upheaval. Cassidy told her he was disappointed she had dodged his questions.
In a reversal, Cassidy said on Thursday that after speaking with Schwartz again, reviewing the transcript and consulting others who know her, he looked forward to working with her if confirmed.
The margin is narrow. Cassidy or any other Republican on the committee, where the party holds a thin 12-11 majority, could effectively block Schwartz’s nomination if Democrats unanimously oppose it. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the committee’s ranking member, said he would vote against her.
If the committee advances the nomination, the full Senate will vote later on confirmation.
Trump nominated Schwartz, his first-term deputy surgeon general, in April after multiple leadership shakeups at the CDC, which has lacked a permanent leader for all but a month of his second term. Susan Monarez, confirmed last year, was fired less than a month later after clashing with Kennedy over vaccine policy.
If confirmed, Schwartz would inherit an agency confronting the worst U.S. measles resurgence in three decades, driven by falling childhood immunization rates, an international Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and the largest U.S. foodborne illness outbreak in recent years.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel and Howard Goller)
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