Erica Schwartz, President Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday in a confirmation hearing that will probe the agency’s ability to regain stable leadership after a period of turbulence.
Trump nominated Schwartz, his first-term deputy surgeon general, in April. The CDC has been without a confirmed director for almost the entirety of President Trump’s second term - holding a confirmed leader for only a single month. The upcoming hearing is the first formal step toward installing a permanent CDC director since Susan Monarez was confirmed last year and then removed from the post less than a month later after policy disagreements with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccines.
Earlier this year, in March 2025, President Trump withdrew his initial CDC nominee, former Congressman Dave Weldon, hours before a planned hearing. Weldon, a Florida Republican and physician who has been long critical of vaccines, was pulled after it became clear he did not have the necessary votes to secure confirmation.
Schwartz, a board-certified preventive medicine physician, does not have a public record of opposing vaccines and is viewed as a more conventional choice for the role. If the Senate confirms her, she will take the helm of the agency at a challenging moment for public health in the United States and abroad.
The CDC is confronting a resurgence of measles in the United States described as the worst in more than three decades. U.S. measles cases this year are on track to surpass the total recorded in 2025, which was the highest since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. Public health officials attribute the increase largely to falling childhood immunization rates.
At the same time, the CDC has activated its highest level of emergency response to an Ebola outbreak affecting the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, a response to an outbreak that is now one of the largest on record. The combination of domestic vaccine hesitancy and a major international outbreak has contributed to eroding public confidence in vaccination programs.
Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician and Republican from Louisiana who has expressed skepticism about Health Secretary Kennedy’s approach to vaccine policy, will preside over the hearing. Cassidy described Schwartz as "very impressive" following a meeting with her last month.
The committee will also consider Sean Kaufman, President Trump’s nominee to be assistant secretary for preparedness and response. Kaufman’s nomination has attracted scrutiny because of past statements questioning vaccines, presenting a sharp contrast with Schwartz. Kaufman has publicly questioned the hepatitis B vaccine for infants and has previously invoked the now-disproven claim linking vaccines to autism.
In a May 2025 LinkedIn post that has since been deleted, Kaufman argued against the infant hepatitis B shot and wrote that anyone calling him "an antivaxxer" would force him "to call you a pedophile." As co-founder of a biosafety consulting firm, Kaufman would, if confirmed, oversee national crisis countermeasures including vaccines and personal protective equipment.
Context and next steps
The hearings for both nominees represent the first formal opportunities for senators to evaluate their records and positions before proceeding toward potential confirmation votes. How the committee and the full Senate handle these nominations will determine whether the CDC and related preparedness offices obtain confirmed leadership while facing simultaneous domestic and international public health challenges.