Susan Monarez was poised to be confirmed to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, putting a longtime government scientist at the helm of an agency being upended by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Senate Republicans earlier Tuesday voted to end debate on Monarez’s nomination, 52-47. Every Democrat voted against the motion, and the confirmation vote is expected to fall similarly along party lines.
Monarez is a longtime government scientist, and unlike many White House health nominees, she is not known as a controversial flamethrower. Still, Democrats are opposing her nomination because they feel she has not separatedherself from Kennedy.
“In my view, we need a CDC director who will defend science, protect public health, repudiate Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous conspiracy theories about safe and effective vaccines that have saved over the years millions of lives,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member on the Senate HELP Committee, said before he voted against advancing her nomination to the floor last month.
“Unfortunately, after reviewing her record, I do not believe that Dr. Monarez is that person.”
The CDC has not had a leader since March, when Monarez stepped down as acting director because she was nominated to be director. She is the first nominee for CDC director to require Senate confirmation.
Monarez will take the lead of an agency under fire.
The Trump administration is looking to slash the CDC budget by almost half in 2026, and hundreds of staff have been cut. Meanwhile, doctors and public health experts have accused Kennedy of undermining the agency’s credibility by changing vaccine recommendations and firing all members of an agency vaccine advisory panel.
In the absence of a director, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with handpicked members.
The CDC director must sign off on ACIP recommendations for them to become official agency policy, but Kennedy has taken on the role himself without a director in place.
Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.
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