WASHINGTON — Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, who chairs the health committee, is being discreet about his plans, choosing not to reveal more details after mentioning he will oversee the situation involving the country’s leading health figures and a recent reorganization at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cassidy, a physician who supports vaccination, finds himself in a tricky spot as the leading Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He played a crucial role in securing the confirmation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by obtaining promises related to vaccines. Cassidy is also preparing for his re-election campaign next year.
On Tuesday, Cassidy refrained from commenting on whether he regrets supporting Kennedy or on his confidence in Kennedy after Kennedy’s actions led to the removal of CDC Director Susan Monarez, which caused several top CDC officials to step down, accusing Kennedy of undermining a key vaccine committee.
“I am keeping an open mind because there is still uncertainty,” Cassidy told NBC News at the Capitol. “But the president of the United States advocates for extreme openness. I fully support Donald J. Trump’s call for transparency. The primary concern here is children’s health, and we need to address these crucial issues concerning our children.”
When asked about his statement on Friday that his committee “will conduct oversight,” Cassidy clarified that his main focus is on resolving “the claims circulating” regarding “children’s health.”
“I’ve discussed with various members of my Republican colleagues,” Cassidy noted. “They also agree that we must ensure our actions benefit children’s health.”
Kennedy is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing that was scheduled before Monarez was fired. The CDC shake-up is certain to become a topic of questioning, although Cassidy — who is also a member of the Finance Committee — would not say what he planned to ask Kennedy.
“I haven’t thought of my questions yet,” Cassidy said, adding that he and Kennedy “communicated over the break” but not during “the last couple days.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is on the HELP Committee, backed Cassidy’s calls for oversight.
“I was not pleased at all when Susan Monarez was asked to step down and the vacancies in leadership that we now have at CDC. I’m encouraged that Chairman Cassidy wants to have some level of oversight within the committee on this,” she said. “I think that that’s important.”
Murkowski said she had begun to read Kennedy’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, in which he defended his leadership over the CDC and said it should re-focus its mission on infectious diseases.
“Saying that he wants to regain the trust and credibility and get back to the original mission of the CDC — hey, I don’t have a problem at all focusing on infectious diseases, making sure that you’ve got more epidemiologists in there. We want to have this based on science,” she said. “Right now, it just doesn’t feel that way.”
Kennedy faces skepticism from other conservative senators.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who also voted to confirm him, described the CDC on Tuesday as a “goat rodeo” with “too much chaos.”
“We need to restore that confidence, and so far, I don’t see where Secretary Kennedy has done that,” Sen. Kennedy said. “All I see over there, at the moment, is a multivehicle pileup. I’m not saying that Secretary Kennedy is wrong or right. I’m not a medical doctor. I’m not qualified to say. … When I met with Bobby in my office, I told him, I said, ‘Your job No. 1 is to restore the confidence of the American people and the institution of public health in America.’ And so far, he hasn’t done that. All I see is chaos.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the CDC has “had its challenges.”
“I think that the president shaking it up is not — it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody,” he said. “That said, the CDC, like most agencies, is better with some stability, and so hopefully the ship can get corrected — get the right people in leadership and move forward.”
But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. — who aligns more with Secretary Kennedy in his criticism of vaccine rules and has celebrated the exodus of CDC officials — questioned Cassidy’s approach.
“He’s taking a position that I think he’s having trouble defending with me,” Paul said, adding that he was siding with Kennedy out of sincere agreement: “This isn’t me just supporting the president.”
Meanwhile, the ranking member on the HELP Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has demanded a bipartisan investigation and an immediate public hearing into the recent CDC firing and resignations. He has also called on Kennedy to resign.
“The reality is that Secretary Kennedy has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines,” Sanders wrote in The New York Times. “Now, as head of H.H.S., he is using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself.”
