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5d ago

Senate Panel Advances Monarez Nomination for CDC Director

The full Senate now prepares for a final vote after a 12-11 split over her response to HHS Secretary Kennedy’s revamp of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel.

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Susan Monarez, President Donald Trump's nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arrives to testify before the Senate HELP Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Susan Monarez, nominee to be director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during her confirmation hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
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Overview

  • The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 12-11 along party lines to advance Susan Monarez’s nomination to the full Senate.
  • Her nomination is the first to require Senate approval under the 2022 accountability law and, if confirmed, would make her the first non-physician CDC director since 1953.
  • Monarez has served as acting CDC director since January and previously led efforts in health technology and pandemic preparedness at ARPA-H, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council.
  • HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appointed experts aligned with vaccine skepticism, leaving Monarez to decide whether to back their recommendations.
  • The agency has undergone widespread staff cuts and key resignations while grappling with a surge in measles cases that has strained its public health response.