Dr. Erica Schwartz faces a Senate confirmation hearing for CDC director. US Department of Health and Human Services hide title toggle title US Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will appear before a Senate committee Wednesday morning to answer questions
Dr. Erica Schwartz faces a Senate confirmation hearing for CDC director.
US Department of Health and Human Services
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US Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Erica Schwartz, Trump’s latest nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will appear before a Senate committee Wednesday morning to answer questions about her vision and qualifications for the position.
The confirmation hearing, with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, will be Schwartz’s first public appearance since Trump nominated her for the position in mid-April. Schwartz is Trump’s third nominee to lead the country’s embattled public health agency, which has been without a permanent director for most of Trump’s second term.
If confirmed, Schwartz will work under the direction of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC.
Schwartz is a retired rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, with degrees in medicine, law and public health. She previously served as chief medical officer of the U.S. Coast Guard and as deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration.
Earlier this year, on Instagram, Schwartz expressed support for vaccines as tools to prevent disease and prevent readiness in the military. (Her Instagram page was deleted shortly after she was nominated for the CDC director position.)
Public health veterans say she has the credentials and experience for the job. “People are very optimistic about her candidacy and supportive of her being in office,” says Dr. Marcus Plescia, health director for the Fulton County district, which includes Atlanta, where the CDC is based.
“What we really need now is a CDC director who can step in and be a spokesperson for some of the emerging issues we face,” Plescia says, “We need someone in that position who can come in, get established, and be there to stay.”
Schwartz is generally expected to clear the Senate confirmation process. However, the role comes with great challenges and difficulties.
Health Secretary Kennedy took office with an agenda to change vaccine policy. In recent months, its changes have been largely blocked by a federal judge, but the intent remains, Dr. Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association, told NPR. “The political agenda is still there,” he says.
Still, the political winds have shifted somewhat. “The president said he was going to let the secretary go crazy, and he did. Now he has had to remove him because he is creating political damage.” Benjamin says this could give the next CDC leader some room to follow the evidence with less political interference.
Obstacles for one of the first directors
Trump’s first choice for CDC director was Dr. Dave Weldon; his nomination was withdrawn shortly before his confirmation hearing because he did not have the votes to approve.
Trump’s second pick, Susan Monarez, received Senate confirmation but served for less than a month last summer before Kennedy fired her.
The next director would be tasked with turning around a CDC that has endured an exceptionally difficult period, including pressure to bow to political directives and staff and capacity cuts, while needing to respond to pressing outbreaks on multiple fronts.
A recent trove of internal CDC emails, released by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, shed light on Monarez’s brief, difficult tenure and the chaotic months that preceded it.
They show select, high-level exchanges between top CDC officials during a tumultuous period from January to August 2025, when the CDC lost thousands of employees to cuts and attrition, faced public criticism from Secretary Kennedy, changed typical procedures, and adjusted to new levels of political oversight.
The last director lacked autonomy to make policy and hiring decisions. For example, on August 19, 2025, Matt Buckham, then Secretary Kennedy’s chief of staff, sent an email to Susan Monarez, the recently confirmed CDC director. “I wanted to raise the absolute need for a political review of major policy decisions at the CDC,” by the Secretary’s immediate office and the CDC’s political leadership, he wrote. “Please be more cautious,” he wrote, before signing off with “Let’s make America great!”
Other exchanges chronicled HHS confusion over who ran the CDC, widespread disorganization around staff reductions, and how Secretary Kennedy’s delegates worked to direct vaccine policy outcomes against the legal and scientific advice of CDC scientists and general counsel.
At an internal CDC meeting last month, the agency’s new leadership addressed the impacts of everything that happened on remaining employees.
“I’ve heard a lot… from people about what the morale is like here, how we’ve gotten to a point where it’s not as happy as it used to be, the stress level is extremely high,” Sean Slovenski, a former Walmart executive and now the CDC’s deputy director and chief operating officer, said in a recording of the meeting reviewed by NPR.
NPR obtained this recording from a current CDC employee who asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions.
“If any organization were to go through one of the things that you’ve had to endure in the last year and a half, it would be traumatic for that organization, institution, for years to come. You’ve had multiple situations,” he said.
Slovenski pledged to proceed carefully in the upcoming reorganization. “I don’t promise that everyone will be happy. What I promise is that everyone will be clear,” he said. “Everyone will know what’s coming and know it was done in the most thoughtful way.”
Also pending confirmation: Head of Preparedness and Response
Wednesday’s session also includes a confirmation hearing for Sean Kaufman, the White House nominee to serve as Under Secretary for Strategic Preparedness and Response at HHS.
Kaufman is senior advisor for global affairs at the CDC and has previously responded to infectious disease outbreaks, including anthrax and West Nile virus. He has also served as an expert witness in multiple cases defending people who faced professional consequences for refusing COVID vaccines, according to his Linkedin profile. Kaufman has questioned the safety and need for universal vaccines against COVID and hepatitis B. The ASPR chief oversees the development of vaccines and countermeasures against pandemics and emerging threats.
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