The White House plans to delay naming a candidate to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that has been roiled by a string of high-level departures and has had three different leaders since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to people familiar with the situation.
Federal law imposes a 210-day limit on those filling Senate-confirmed positions in an acting capacity. Trump has until midnight Wednesday to nominate a permanent director. If he does not, the agency will be officially leaderless.
But the administration faces a formidable challenge in finding a nominee who aligns with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda while avoiding his unpopular stance on vaccines.
The White House has yet to find someone who fits with the Trump administration’s mission and can also win Senate confirmation, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal decision-making.
The administration has a short list of several candidates, some of whom are staunch vaccine advocates. The search is being led by Chris Klomp — who runs the Center for Medicare and oversees the Department of Health and Human Services’ operations — and his deputy, John Brooks.
The Health Department said Wednesday that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who directs the National Institutes of Health and has been running the CDC in an acting capacity, “will continue to oversee the CDC by performing the delegable duties of the CDC director” until the agency has a permanent director.
In a call with the CDC staff on Wednesday, a recording of which was obtained by The New York Times, Bhattacharya said he intended to name new leaders for the agency’s institutes to replace those who had been fired or had resigned over the previous year. He also promised to help shore up the organization so that it “is in a solid, secure place, ready to do the work without so much of the turmoil that we’ve seen the last year.”
The CDC has had a tumultuous year under Trump and Kennedy. Hundreds of employees have been laid off, programs have been shuttered and a gunman who was fixated on the coronavirus vaccine fired a barrage of bullets at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta last summer, killing a police officer.
The CDC is also facing lawsuits. Last week, a federal judge put the agency’s revised and shorter childhood vaccine schedule on hold. In the case, which was brought by six medical organizations, the judge ruled that Kennedy and his advisers had made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the schedule that were not backed up by scientific evidence. The administration has indicated it will appeal the decision.
The agency has been without a permanent leader for all but a little under a month during the second Trump administration. Susan Monarez, the previous permanent director, was confirmed by the Senate in July. About a month later, Kennedy fired her amid a dispute over vaccine policy and her refusal to accept the recommendations of his handpicked panel of vaccine advisers.
The CDC’s director must be confirmed by the Senate, a requirement that lawmakers added in 2022.
Last March, the White House withdrew its first pick to lead the agency, Dr. Dave Weldon, a Republican and former member of Congress, when it became clear that his anti-vaccine views would not pass muster with the Senate.
The nomination of Dr. Casey Means, the White House’s pick for surgeon general, has also stalled, as two Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, have expressed qualms about her statements on vaccines.
