Senate panel advances nominee for CDC

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The Senate HELP Committee narrowly advanced President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday.

The party-line vote split lawmakers on how confident they were the new director would follow the science on public health.

“Dr. Monarez is ready to take on this challenge,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) who chairs the committee. “She has committed to improving transparency at the CDC and properly communicating health guidance to the American people.”

Cassidy said he’s confident Susan Monarez, a scientist in the federal service for nearly two decades, would improve the country’s coordination and response to public health issues.

“This is especially crucial as the nation combats reemerging health threats like measles, which has taken three lives in the United States this year,” Cassidy said.

Opponents though used examples like the measles outbreak to explain why they could not support Monarez’s confirmation.

“Under her watch, the Trump administration has illegally delayed or canceled $11 billion in public health funding,” said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) the committee’s ranking member. 

Sanders and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) worry Monarez’s allegiance isn’t to the public but to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“We could actually have the best CDC director in the world, and it wouldn’t change the fact that we have a person leading HHS who is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist,” Murray said. 

Monarez’s nomination now heads to the full Senate for final approval. If confirmed, she would be the first nonphysician to lead the CDC in decades.

The CDC reported Wednesday measles cases in the U.S. have hit their highest level in more than three decades with nearly 1,300 cases this year.