Senate confirms Schwartz as CDC director, 51-44, with both Alaska senators voting yes

The U.S. Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz of Florida as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, 51-44. The vote ends a vacancy that left the agency without a confirmed leader for nearly a year. Whether Schwartz revisits the Department of Health and Human Services' reduced pediatric vaccine schedule, including a delayed hepatitis B birth dose, remains unsettled. That question carries particular weight for Alaska Native children given the state's history with the disease. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both Alaska Republicans, voted yea. Both also voted yea on the earlier 51-43 cloture motion advancing the nomination.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed Director Susan Monarez less than a month into her tenure after she refused pressure to change vaccine policy. With no confirmed director in place, HHS reduced the number of recommended pediatric vaccines. Alaska News previously covered the Senate health committee's postponed vote on Schwartz. That vote was delayed when Murkowski's absence left Republicans a vote short.

Murkowski told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at its July 15 hearing that the state once had the highest hepatitis B rates in the nation, "particularly in our Alaska Native communities and with Alaska Native children." She said universal newborn immunization virtually eliminated transmission there.

Schwartz told the committee she believes vaccines are safe and effective. She said she supports mRNA technology, which Kennedy has criticized. Sen. Tammy Baldwin pressed Schwartz on her independence from political decision-making. Baldwin warned that a proposed new CDC office to formalize political review could let political appointees override the agency's scientists, along with a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule requiring political review of discretionary grants. Baldwin and other Democratic and independent senators who voted no said Schwartz did not commit to opposing Kennedy's vaccine agenda.

Outside the Senate, the American Hospital Association welcomed the confirmation. The group said stable, science-based leadership at the CDC matters to hospitals responding to outbreaks and other public health threats, including rural facilities in Alaska that depend on federal guidance and preparedness support. Parents and pediatric health advocates say they remain alarmed that HHS trimmed the recommended childhood vaccine schedule while the directorship sat empty. They say they will watch whether Schwartz reverses or endorses those changes, a question that carries added weight in remote Alaska communities with limited health care access.