By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate health committee voted on Thursday to advance the nomination of President Donald Trump’s pick for CDC director Dr. Erica Schwartz, handing his administration a rare win after repeated failed attempts to fill top health posts.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee sent Schwartz, Trump’s third pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to the full Senate on a 13-10 vote, with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine the lone member to cross party lines.
Trump withdrew his first CDC pick, Dave Weldon, and his first surgeon general nominee, Janette Nesheiwat, in 2025 before either reached a hearing. He withdrew a second surgeon general pick, Casey Means, in April when it became apparent she lacked enough votes.
If confirmed, Schwartz would be the first permanent CDC director since Susan Monarez, Trump’s second pick, was fired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year after less than a month over a clash on vaccine policy.
The upheaval extends across the Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary resigned in May, with no replacement nominated. The deputy health secretary’s post has been vacant since Jim O’Neill left in February, and a dozen of the National Institutes of Health’s 27 institutes and centers lack permanent directors.
Schwartz is set to 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.
Her chances improved last week when Senator Bill Cassidy, the committee’s Republican chairman, signaled support, reversing course after earlier questioning whether she would stand up to Kennedy on vaccine policy.
Trump nominated Schwartz, his first-term deputy surgeon general, in April. The CDC has lacked a permanent leader for all but a month of his second term.
The committee also voted 12-11 along party lines to advance Sean Kaufman, Trump’s pick for Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
The full Senate is unlikely to confirm either nominee before its August recess, meaning a final vote may not come until September.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
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