The chair of the Senate’s top health committee is seeking assurances from the Trump administration ahead of a tough vote on a nominee who has a history of statements undermining the safety of vaccines.
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bill Cassidy and the Trump administration are currently in discussions about the president’s pick to lead the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, after it was revealed that the nominee, Sean Kaufman, had written past social media statements questioning the administration of the hepatitis B shot to infants, while linking vaccines to autism.
Cassidy told National Journal Tuesday evening that he had spoken with top Health and Human Services Department aide Chris Klomp about Kaufman’s nomination.
While the senator didn’t go into the specifics of the conversation, Cassidy said he’s looking for further changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. As it stands, the website does not completely rule out a link between autism and vaccines.
“It’s a work in progress,” Cassidy said.
Klomp confirmed the conversation took place, but declined to give further details.
This is the first set of tough health nominees scheduled before Cassidy’s committee since the senator lost his primary against a challenger backed by President Trump.
A vote to consider Kaufman, along with Trump’s pick to lead the CDC, Erica Schwartz, was delayed last week due to attendance issues and ongoing conversations with the administration on the ASPR nomination, according to a spokesperson for the HELP Committee. A vote on both nominees is scheduled for Thursday.
Cassidy pointed out last week that, per an agreement made with HHS, the agency had removed a caveat to the CDC web page saying that the heading “vaccines do not cause autism” was only up because of a previous deal with the senator. Cassidy cited the move as a “sign of good faith” that paved the way for his support of Schwartz.
Nonetheless, the website still states that the claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based” one, and that studies supporting any link have “been ignored by health authorities.” This goes against decades of research debunking any link between vaccines and autism.
In an interview with CNN’S Dana Bash Sunday, Cassidy asserted that “there absolutely have been concessions” from the administration as discussions on the nominees continue, but didn’t get into specifics on what they were.
As Kaufman’s nomination hangs in the balance, the negotiations mark an escalation in tensions between the outgoing senator and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who have publicly feuded over vaccines since Kennedy was first nominated for his position.
Along with publicly calling out the HHS secretary for his anti-vaccine rhetoric and conducting oversight into the ousting of senior CDC officials last year, Cassidy never scheduled a committee vote on Trump’s former nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, following her confirmation hearing in February. Means, a Kennedy ally, didn’t have the votes to pass committee, and her nomination suffered a silent death until it was withdrawn by the administration.
Weeks before Cassidy’s primary election, Trump, Kennedy, and their allies launched a social media blitz blaming Cassidy for Means’s nomination being stalled in committee, despite it being unclear whether or not Cassidy would support her. While Cassidy is in charge of scheduling her committee vote, he never clarified where he stood on Means. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who also sit on the HELP panel, had continued to express reservations about supporting the Kennedy ally.
Cassidy’s involvement in Means’s nomination and the wrath of Trump and Kennedy contributed to his third-place finish in the Republican primary in Louisiana, behind Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming. Letlow, backed by Trump, went on to win the June runoff election, and is expected to replace Cassidy in the ruby-red state.
Days after losing reelection, the outgoing senator pledged to hold Kennedy accountable.
But what that accountability looks like is unclear. Any assurances made by the administration could be walked back, as has happened to Cassidy before. During Kennedy’s confirmation process, he promised to maintain a key CDC vaccine panel in charge of the childhood vaccine schedule and not to remove statements on the agency’s website that assert vaccines do not cause autism. Kennedy has since broken the pledges that helped sway Cassidy's support for his nomination: shrinking the number of shots children are recommended to receive, dismissing the entire CDC panel and filling it with vaccine skeptics, and pushing ahead to modify the CDC website.
Since losing reelection, Cassidy has been more outspoken in challenging the administration on a host of issues, including the Iran war, Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund, and the East Wing renovation. His newfound freedom has been on display during Kaufman and Schwartz’s nomination hearing earlier this month, pointedly questioning the nominees on whether they would look to buck Kennedy or enable his urges to gut public health.
Both nominees refused to directly answer whether they would push back against moves to undermine access to shots. Their answers visibly frustrated Cassidy, a liver doctor who has made vaccines his banner issue during Trump 2.0.
“I have a sense that you were way overprepped for this because in our conversation we spoke as two doctors,” Cassidy said to Schwartz at the end of the hearing. “And here, I felt like you were always trying not to answer my question, which was disappointing.”
