Dr. Heidi Overton is showing earlier than a Senate committee on Thursday for her affirmation listening to as the following commissioner of the Meals and Drug Administration.
Overton was nominated in August by President Donald Trump, who described her in a publish on social media as a “ROCKSTAR in my Administration.”
She is sitting earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee, the place she is more likely to face questions on childhood vaccines and the abortion drug mifepristone.
If confirmed, Overton would be the second particular person to steer the FDA after the earlier commissioner, Marty Makary, resigned following public clashes with lawmakers, main pharmaceutical firms and Trump over fruit-flavored vapes.
Kyle Diamantas has served as appearing FDA commissioner since Might 2026.
Sen. Invoice Cassidy, R-La., chair of the HELP committee, started the listening to by asking Overton if the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine Is deadly. Overton replied it isn’t.
When requested if the vaccine is protected and efficient, Overton reiterated that the vaccine is protected and efficient towards measles.
“Are there any vaccines on the U.S. market proper now that are unsafe?” Cassidy requested.
“Senator, each vaccine on the U.S. market proper now could be protected and efficient, in response to the FDA,” Overton mentioned.
Cassidy tried to press Overton on whether or not she disagreed with the president on the protection and efficacy of the MMR vaccine, however Overton defelcted from answering straight.
Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White Home Home Coverage Council, speaks throughout a gathering to signal an government order about vaccines, Aug. 10, 2026, within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP Picture
She has espoused anti-abortion views and supported reductions to the childhood immunization schedule. On the government order signing, she touted the usage of what she referred to as “gold-standard science” and restoring vaccination authority to oldsters.
Overton was nominated for the job, partially, as a result of she is a loyalist of the president, two sources aware of the nomination inform ABC Information.
She’s been described as a loyal staffer, significantly within the presidents’ efforts to overtake the childhood vaccine schedule, in response to a former senior administration official.
“Why would you not need your individual loyalist in there?” the supply mentioned about Trump’s selection, including “She [Overton] sort of goes together with issues.” The previous official helps Overton however has beforehand acknowledged that, “She’s been on this planet of politics for a very long time and understands every little thing’s about loyalty.”
Overton is a doctor with a physician of drugs diploma from the College of New Mexico and in addition holds a doctorate from Johns Hopkins College.
Previous to her position as deputy assistant to the president for home coverage, she was vice chair of the America First Coverage Institute’s (AFPI) Middle for a Wholesome America, the place Overton was additionally the chief coverage officer, a nonprofit that goals to advance insurance policies that it says put the American folks first. AFPI was run by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins earlier than Rollins was tapped to hitch the president’s Cupboard.
A number of Trump administration officers held positions there earlier than he was reelected, together with Schooling Secretary Linda McMahon.
Previous to the listening to, Cassidy expressed “robust considerations” about Overton’s nomination due to her participation within the White Home government order overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule.
“That alone is sort of disqualifying,” Cassidy wrote in a publish on X.
Cassidy, a doctor and liver physician, has lengthy championed the efficacy of vaccines and has grilled Trump’s well being officers on their willingness to face as much as Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., together with just lately put in director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Dr. Erica Schwartz.
Overton will possible additionally face questions in regards to the abortion drug mifepristone. Final yr, Kennedy launched an FDA security overview of the drug.
In an announcement to ABC Information, Democratic Girls’s Caucus Chairwoman Teresa Leger Fernández slammed the nomination.
“I name on my colleagues within the Senate to reject her nomination,” Fernández wrote, including “Overton has publicly denied scientific truth and repeatedly launched conspiratorial assaults towards our proper to abortion entry, the protection of mifepristone, and Deliberate Parenthood.”
Fernández added: “She shouldn’t be certified to function FDA Commissioner, and her extremist beliefs and loyalty to the Trump administration will put the lives of thousands and thousands of girls in danger.”
In an announcement, Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar on the Johns Hopkins College Middle for Well being Safety, additionally criticized her nomination.
“The truth that Dr. Overton performed a central position in an government order that shrinks the childhood vaccine schedule and requires splitting MMR into photographs that do not exist, all with out new proof, calls into query her scientific judgement,” Adalja mentioned. “The truth that she has garnered the reward of the nation’s chief anti-vaccine propagandist, Secretary Kennedy, can be regarding.”
