Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) expressed their considerations over Dave Weldon’s nomination to go the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) previous to senior Trump administration officers deciding to withdraw it.
Murkowski relayed her considerations about Weldon on to the White Home, whereas Collins made an offhand comment concerning the nominee to Secretary of Well being and Human Providers Robert F. Kennedy Jr., although she had not reached a last determination on how she would vote.
Murkowski informed reporters Thursday that she expressed her considerations about Weldon to the White Home.
Requested if she had considerations about Weldon heading a number one public well being company, Murkowski replied, “Yes, I did, and I shared those.”
She mentioned she wasn’t stunned by the choice to withdraw his nomination.
Collins additionally raised considerations about Trump’s alternative of Weldon, an outspoken critic of vaccine security, to go the nation’s science-based service group answerable for defending the general public’s well being.
“There are some areas of disagreement, and I look forward to the public hearing when I will be able to question him in public and in more depth on issues like vaccine recommendations,” Collins informed Bloomberg earlier this month.
Weldon, in a press release reacting to the withdrawal of his nomination, mentioned that Kennedy alerted him Wednesday that Collins had expressed concern over his file.
“Bobby told me that earlier that morning he had breakfast with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who said she now had reservations about my nomination and was considering voting no,” Weldon mentioned.
“I had a very pleasant meeting with her two weeks prior where she expressed no reservations about my nomination, but at my meeting with her staff on March 11 they were suddenly very hostile — a bad sign,” he recalled.
Collins occurred to take a seat subsequent to Kennedy at an early St. Patrick’s Day breakfast hosted by Vice President Vance on Wednesday.
Collins, nonetheless, informed reporters Thursday she was stunned Weldon’s nomination had been withdrawn shortly earlier than his scheduled affirmation listening to.
“The news came as a surprise to me. I was on my way to the markup, which was going to be followed by the hearing on his nomination. It was not something I anticipated,” she mentioned.
She mentioned she didn’t categorical her considerations to the White Home.
“I certainly had not reached a final judgment. I followed my normal practice of waiting until the hearing was scheduled, so he can respond in a public forum,” she mentioned.
Weldon was scheduled to testify at his affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday morning, earlier than his nomination was immediately pulled.
Murkowski and Collins each sit on that panel, on which Republicans management a 12-11 majority. If both of them had voted no, it could have been sufficient to bottle the nominee up in committee.
Some Republican lawmakers, nonetheless, thought Weldon’s nomination would develop into a political legal responsibility given the detrimental publicity surrounding a measles outbreak throughout a number of states.
A faculty-aged baby who was not vaccinated died in Texas final month, sending a wave of alarming headlines via the media.
Different Republicans mentioned they weren’t stunned to listen to the White Home determined to drag Weldon’s nomination.
“I think it makes sense,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) informed reporters. “Some of us who had some concerns with [Secretary] Kennedy’s previous statements got past that because we believed that scientists running some of these three-letter health agencies are going to be driven by data, are going to be driven by science.”
Tillis mentioned Weldon’s “past comments have raised enough questions” to sow doubts whether or not insurance policies on the CDC can be pushed by science.
Weldon, a former Republican congressman from Florida, has a protracted historical past of supporting anti-vaccine theories.
He has argued up to now that vaccinating kids in opposition to the flu may poise a poisoning threat.
“Parents should not be forced to choose between the risk of the mercury containing preservative thimerosal — whether real or perceived and the risk of contracting influenza,” he wrote in a letter to the Home Appropriations chair in 2007, based on Statnews.com.
