Senator Marshall Questions CDC, ASPR Nominees on America’s Public Health Preparedness

Senator Marshall Questions HHS Nominees at Senate HELP Committee

Washington - On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), questioned President Trump's nominees to lead two of the nation's top public health agencies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing. The witnesses included Sean Kaufman, M.P.H., nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Erica Schwartz, nominee to serve as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Throughout the hearing, Senator Marshall emphasized restoring trust in public health, strengthening America's preparedness for future pandemics, supporting innovation through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and reducing the nation's dependence on foreign sources of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).

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Highlights from the hearing include:

Senator Marshall: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For both of you, I'm going to ask you in a second about active pharmaceutical ingredients. You don't have to tell me what the problem is-I want to talk about solutions. But before I get to that, I just want to compliment both of you. Dr. Schwartz, you have one of the most qualified résumés I've seen in front of this committee. You're a two-star admiral-just incredible. Congratulations, and thank you. Most importantly, thank you for your character, your culture, your values, and all those things that I hope my kids and grandkids will look up to and say, "That's the type of person I want to be, and that's the type of position I want to have." And Mr. Kaufman, I think you're the right person for ASPR right now. I think it's always good to go back and look at the fundamentals. So, what is ASPR? This is something I didn't know much about until I got here, even though I'm a physician. It's the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. Your motto is, "Stand Ready. Move Fast." Your charge is overseeing medical and public health preparedness, response, and recovery. And I believe that, for such a time as this, you've been prepared to do this job. Your résumé reflects hands-on experience inside public health laboratories, frontline response experience to anthrax threats, and West Nile virus. You understand federal infrastructure and interagency coordination. You've led private-sector innovation in behavioral safety and disaster preparedness. Mr. Kaufman, you combine deep technical knowledge, real-world response experience, and proven leadership-exactly what we need to keep Americans safe. Now, so often, it seems like all this committee cares about is vaccines. In reality, that's maybe one percent of both of your worlds-perhaps more, perhaps less. I happen to agree that there are concerns about mRNA technology. The protection is short-lived. These vaccines don't stop transmission of the virus. There are significant risks associated with them, especially for young males, particularly young males who already have positive antibodies. Like you, I gave different advice to my parents than I did to my kids. But I guess what I'm looking for, Mr. Kaufman, is this: let's say it's the next virus, the next epidemic. Are you committed to making sure that America has access to whatever vaccines you deem safe and appropriate, so they can be put into the hands of doctors to make those recommendations for their patients?"

Mr. Kaufman: "Senator Marshall, thank you for the question. I also want to thank you. I've actually done a lot of great work in your state at the USDA facility in Manhattan, and I want to acknowledge that the staff there is phenomenal and excellent as well. To answer your question, I will be committed to leading a phenomenal team at ASPR. Primarily, there's a small organization that many people may not have heard of-an island of excellence-called BARDA. BARDA is responsible not only for looking at new technologies, because what we face today is the ability of our adversaries to genetically modify organisms, creating novel threats that could put Americans drastically at risk, very similar to what we saw with COVID. So, BARDA is not only interested in creating vaccine countermeasures to protect Americans, but also therapeutics."

Senator Marshall: "Mr. Kaufman, I'm trying to get you some votes here. Are you committed to getting vaccines into the hands of doctors and nurses?"

Mr. Kaufman: "Absolutely. One hundred percent. I'm sorry I missed the softball."

Senator Marshall: "There you go. Dr. Schwartz, I mentioned APIs. You and I both know what the huge problem is. What's the solution to bring API production back home?"

Dr. Schwartz: "Senator, I actually have to get smarter on that. I have to be brutally honest here-I haven't really been following that issue. But I would definitely love to work with your team on it."

Senator Marshall: "My guess is that the diagnostics you're using and the therapeutics you want available will require APIs, Mr. Kaufman. Now, maybe it's BARDA's turn."

Mr. Kaufman: "That's right. Yeah, there are new technologies. Right now, as you know, there's a problem, and I'm so happy that you acknowledge it's actually a very, very big problem. BARDA can look at technologies that use different types of ingredients, helping reduce our dependence on adversaries and shifting toward more biologically based future countermeasures rather than chemical ones. So, there are different strategies and technologies that the scientists at BARDA are looking into and will continue to explore to help protect America."

Senator Marshall: "But this is the problem that this committee needs to be looking at. This is the real problem. I mean, it's great to see manufacturing moving back here-that we're making vaccines and we're making drugs again in this country-but we don't have the APIs to do it, and very few companies are producing them. I hope this committee can take on that challenge and consider whatever we can do as a congressional body to address it as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman."

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