Former Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez is showing earlier than the Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday for her first public look since she was pushed out of her place main the nation’s public well being company.
Republican Sen. Invoice Cassidy, the panel’s chair and a physician from Louisiana who was one of many key votes to substantiate Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., mentioned he was centered on studying what led to the abrupt firing of Monarez simply weeks after her affirmation.
“A part of our duty in the present day is to ask ourselves, if somebody is fired 29 days after each Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the secretary mentioned in her swearing in that she has ‘unimpeachable scientific credentials’ and the president known as her an unbelievable mom and devoted public servant — like what occurred? Did we fail? Was there one thing we must always have accomplished otherwise?” Cassidy mentioned.
Monarez plans to situation an in depth timeline of the occasions main as much as her firing, in response to a duplicate of her ready testimony seen by ABC Information, together with a gathering wherein she says Health and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. informed her to preemptively settle for suggestions from a CDC vaccine advisory panel and to fireplace profession officers overseeing vaccine coverage.
“He mentioned if I used to be unwilling to do each, I ought to resign. I responded that I couldn’t pre-approve suggestions with out reviewing the proof, and I had no foundation to fireplace scientific consultants,” Monarez plans to say.
She can even declare that Kennedy spoke to the White Home “a number of occasions” previous to the assembly about firing her.
“I might have saved the workplace and the title. However I might have misplaced the one factor that can not be changed: my integrity,” Monarez will say.
Former Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez arrives to testify earlier than a Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 17, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Kennedy, in his listening to earlier than the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, disputed Monarez’s model of occasions, which she first shared that very same day in an op-ed printed by the Wall Avenue Journal.
“Did you, in truth, do what Director Monarez has mentioned you probably did, which is inform her, ‘Simply go together with vaccine suggestions, even if you happen to did not suppose such suggestions aligned with scientific proof?'” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested Kennedy.
“No, I didn’t,” Kennedy replied.
In a fiery alternate with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Warren famous that Kennedy had only a month earlier than described Monarez as “unimpeachable” after she was confirmed.
“I informed her that she needed to resign as a result of I requested her, ‘Are you a reliable individual?’ And she or he mentioned, ‘No,'” Kennedy replied. “If you happen to had an worker who informed you they weren’t reliable, would you ask them to resign, Senator?”
Monarez is being joined at Wednesday’s listening to by Deb Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science on the CDC, who was certainly one of 4 high CDC officers who resigned in protest after Monarez was ousted.
The high-profile departures raised alarm over Kennedy’s vaccine coverage agenda, which the general public well being officers mentioned they had been being requested to endorse with out enough science.
Sen. Cassidy’s determination to pursue oversight of the CDC turmoil signifies a brand new, firmer period for his relationship with Kennedy — a shift was on full show throughout Kennedy’s personal listening to earlier than the Senate earlier this month.
In his opening assertion, although, Cassidy informed Monarez and Houry that “the onus is upon you to show that the criticisms leveled by the secretary aren’t true.”
The senator accused Kennedy of undermining President Donald Trump’s legacy on Operation Warp Speed, the federal government effort that fast-tracked the COVID vaccine, and informed him current FDA modifications to COVID vaccines had been “denying” individuals entry.
Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who sits on the HELP Committee and has known as for Kennedy to step down, mentioned Cassidy’s determination to name Monarez to testify confirmed a continued “weakening” of help for the secretary.
“I believe Secretary Kennedy’s actions on the Finance Committee left loads of not simply Democrats, however Republicans very unsettled,” Blunt Rochester informed ABC Information in an interview.
“The truth that a Republican is chairing the committee and known as for her to come back is a optimistic step, and perhaps reveals there’s some weakening. However the actuality is, , Secretary Kennedy must go — whether or not that’s he is fired, whether or not he quits, he’s unsafe for America,” she mentioned.
Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is interviewed outdoors of the White Home West Wing, September 9, 2025 in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photographs
Through the Senate Finance Committee listening to on Sept. 4, Cassidy was joined by two different Republicans on the committee — Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second strongest GOP senator, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who introduced earlier this 12 months he was not operating for reelection — in expressing concern over Kennedy’s dealing with of vaccines and the CDC.
Different high-level Republicans have additionally voiced criticism, together with Senate Majority Chief John Thune, who mentioned Kennedy needed to “take duty” for firing Monarez simply 4 weeks after the Senate confirmed her. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine mentioned she did not see any “justification” for the termination.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy, Cassidy’s counterpart in Louisiana, known as Kennedy’s dealing with of the CDC a “a number of automobile pileup.”
Monarez, who HHS publicly introduced was “not director” on a Wednesday afternoon in late August, drew widespread consideration when she refused to depart her put up, asking Trump to weigh in and hearth her straight if he agreed along with his HHS secretary. She mentioned she was pushed out as a result of she would not conform to rubber-stamp Kennedy’s agenda or hearth high-ranking scientists.
The transfer put a highlight on Kennedy’s vaccine coverage modifications, which have ramped up in current weeks. Kennedy canceled round $500 million in contracts for mRNA vaccines, modified the suggestions for wholesome kids and pregnant girls to obtain COVID-19 vaccinations and, by means of the FDA, oversaw the narrowing of approval for the up to date COVID photographs this fall solely to individuals over 65, or youthful People with underlying situations.
Later this month, a CDC committee will meet to debate vaccine suggestions extra broadly, together with the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
Kennedy has changed the entire members of the committee with handpicked individuals, a few of whom have expressed criticism of vaccines. Requested by ABC Information if he plans to restrict entry to any of these vaccines, Kennedy mentioned the committee would determine after a “actual gold normal scientific overview.”
“Mother and father deserve a CDC they will belief to place kids above politics, proof above ideology and information above concern,” Monarez wrote within the WSJ on Sept. 4.
“I used to be fired for holding that line,” she wrote.
Kennedy stood by the current shakeups at CDC, saying they had been “completely needed changes to revive the company to its function because the world’s gold normal public well being company with a central mission of defending People from infectious illness.”
