The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted 12-11 July 30 to support a full Senate vote on three Trump administration nominees, including two HHS leaders.
The three nominees on the agenda were Sean Kaufman for HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response; Erica Schwartz, MD, for CDC director; and Keith Sonderling for secretary of labor. All three nominees individually received 12 yeas and 11 nays.
Before the vote, committee chair Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., raised concerns about past comments from Dr. Schwartz and Mr. Kaufman, adding he now feels “assured” after conversations with both nominees.
“Mr. Kaufman has said some pretty stupid things and irresponsible things regarding immunization,” Dr. Cassidy said before voting in favor of all three nominees. “He has owned up to that in his conversations with me. I’m assured that if he is confirmed, he will not be involved in vaccine policy and nor will he be the ultimate decision maker on certain issues like mRNA because of his past statements.”
“While there have been changes to the CDC website, any assertion that there is a link between autism and vaccines is wrong,” Dr. Cassidy said. “We don’t know what causes autism, but study after study shows that it is not vaccines. The administration has committed to continuing to work to remove vaccine misinformation from that website. This is something that, again, I’ll pay close attention to as HHS nominees move through the confirmation process.”
The committee’s ranking member, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted against all three nominees. In his introductory remarks, he reiterated his statements from July 23, when the vote was initially scheduled.
Mr. Sanders said he opposes the nominations for Dr. Schwartz and Mr. Kaufman.
“He has promoted outrageous conspiracy theories linking the hepatitis B vaccine to autism … he has said that he would rather ‘perish’ than give his children the COVID-19 vaccine,” Mr. Sander said. “Those are not the types of statements we should hear from someone charged with preventing the next pandemic.”
The Senate will vote on Mr. Kaufman, Dr. Schwartz and Mr. Sonderling. They will likely achieve confirmation, but not until after Congress’ August recess, according to CNN.
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