Susan Monarez, the former director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is set to testify before a Senate panel next Wednesday, Sept. 19, on the recent high-profile departures from the agency.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced that the committee would hold the hearing “on delivering President Trump’s mission to restore radical transparency at the CDC. This is crucial to protecting the health of American children.”
“Children’s health must be the top priority. I thank President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for making radical transparency a priority,” Cassidy said in a statement on Tuesday. “To protect children’s health, Americans need to know what has happened and is happening at the CDC. They need to be reassured that their child’s health is given priority. Radical transparency is the only way to do that.”
Monarez was ousted as CDC director in late August, after only a few weeks on the job. According to The New York Times, Kennedy told Monarez to resign or be fired over tensions around vaccine policy.
Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer who resigned last month, will also testify at the hearing. Houry told the Associated Press in August that her resignation was spurred by the Trump administration’s decision to oust Monarez, describing it as a last straw.
Houry said at the time that three other CDC officials who resigned in late August did so after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed out Monarez.
The committee is also planning to invite officials at HHS to respond at a future hearing, according to HELP’s website.
The hearing will come two weeks after Kennedy defended his tenure as the nation’s top health official during a contentious Senate hearing, snapping back at lawmakers who pressed him on the recent upheaval at the CDC and changes to vaccine policy.
During the hearing, Cassidy, a physician, clashed with Kennedy over mRNA vaccines and conflicts of interest among Kennedy’s handpicked panel of vaccine advisers.
Cassidy was reluctant to support Kennedy’s confirmation but ultimately cast the deciding vote for his nomination to advance out of committee after receiving assurances about vaccine policy. Their fiery exchange at the hearing marked the strongest pushback and most contentious public exchange between the two since Kennedy’s term began.
