President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Erica Schwartz to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluding a monthslong effort to install a permanent leader at the embattled health agency.
Schwartz will have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya had been acting director of the CDC – a title that expired last month under federal law. That law, called the Vacancies Act, limits the amount of time an acting officer can serve in place of a Senate-confirmed official to 210 days.
Late last month, it marked 210 days since the most recent CDC director, Dr. Susan Monarez, was fired.
She has so far been the only person to serve as a confirmed CDC director during Trump’s second term, holding the role for under a month last summer. In congressional testimony in September, Monarez said she was fired after refusing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s demands to approve vaccine recommendations she believed lacked scientific support.
