Monarez is the first CDC director to be confirmed by the Senate under a new 2023 law and will be the first person without a medical degree to assume leadership of the agency in more than 70 years.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Susan Monarez as the new director of the CDC, granting her the reins over an agency that in recent months has weathered steep budget and staffing cuts.
Lawmakers were split 51–47 along party lines, according to reporting from NPR, which noted that Monarez will be the first CDC director without a medical degree in more than seven decades. Monarez’s vote is also the first time the Senate weighed in on the CDC’s directorship since the passage of the CDC Leadership Accountability Act of 2023, which requires that the CDC director get Senate confirmation. Previously, directors were directly appointed by the president.
President Donald Trump nominated Monarez as CDC director in March, for a role she had already been fulfilling in an acting capacity, calling her “an incredible mother and dedicated public servant,” in a post on the social media platform Truth Social. Before Monarez, Trump had previously picked Dave Weldon, a physician, to lead the CDC but withdrew the nomination right before he was scheduled to speak before the Senate in March.
In her own confirmation hearing in June, Monarez emerged as a balanced voice amid the growing chorus of vaccine criticism from U.S. health leaders. “I think vaccines save lives,” Monarez told the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. “I think we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines.” Under her leadership, she added, the CDC will “commit to making sure that we continue to prioritize vaccine availability.”
When asked by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about the claim that vaccines cause autism—one that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself has hinted at—Monarez responded: “I have not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism.”
Though not a medical doctor, Monarez has a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin. She has also had a long career in the government, having previously served at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health during the Biden administration and at the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House.
The last few months have been turbulent for the CDC. When Kennedy announced his overhaul of HHS in March, some 2,400 jobs at the CDC were put on the chopping block. For the 2026 fiscal year, HHS is eyeing a $1.2 billion cut to the CDC’s program-level budget, dropping from $5.56 billion in 2025 to $4.321 billion.
However, arguably the most high-profile change to the CDC in recent months—which also generated the greatest scrutiny for the agency—is Kennedy’s purge in June of all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The American Medical Association blasted this move and called for its “immediate reversal,” as well as urging the Senate to look into the matter. Democratic lawmakers have since opened an investigation and are asking for information from Kennedy by Aug. 12.
