Senate Confirms Erica Schwartz to Run the CDC, 51-44, Ending Nearly a Year Without a Permanent Director

The Senate voted 51-44 on Aug. 5, 2026, to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vote fell along party lines except for Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, the only Democrat to vote yes. Schwartz, 54, holds MD, MPH and JD degrees, spent 24 years in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, served as Deputy Surgeon General during Trump’s first term and led the Coast Guard health system. She becomes the 22nd CDC director and the third person Trump nominated to the post in 18 months, after David Weldon’s withdrawn nomination and Susan Monarez, who was ousted on Aug. 27, 2025, less than a month into the job after clashing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya had been serving as acting director since February 2026.

The agency has gone nearly a year without a confirmed leader while facing the largest domestic measles outbreak in 35 years and a growing cyclosporiasis outbreak, and while its vaccine advisory structure has been remade and partly blocked in court. At her confirmation hearing Schwartz repeatedly affirmed the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccines; Democrats questioned whether she would be able to act independently of Kennedy. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who had withheld support, announced he would back her on July 23.

Schwartz is confirmed and takes office. Whether she can set vaccine policy against her department secretary is untested.