WASHINGTON — Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the Health Committee, is holding his cards close to the vest, declining to elaborate after saying he will conduct “oversight” of the country’s top health official and a recent shakeup at the CDC.
Cassidy, a doctor who has been supportive of vaccines, is in a delicate position as the top Republican on the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee who provided a pivotal vote to confirm Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. after securing assurances on vaccines. The Louisiana Republican is also running for re-election next year.
Cassidy declined Tuesday to say whether he regrets his vote for Kennedy or whether he has confidence in him after the HHS secretary triggered CDC Director Susan Monarez’s removal, leading to a spate of resignations from top CDC employees who accused Kennedy of undermining an influential vaccine committee.
“I am reserving judgment because we don’t know who’s right or wrong,” Cassidy told NBC News in the Capitol. “But the president of the United States wants radical transparency. I totally agree with Donald J. Trump. We need radical transparency because what is at stake here is children’s health, and we need to focus on those issues related to children.”
Asked what he meant by saying in a statement Friday that his committee “will conduct oversight,” Cassidy said that his primary concern is addressing “the allegations floating out there” about “children’s health.”
“I’ve spoken to multiple members of my Republican caucus,” Cassidy said. “They also think that we need to make sure we’re doing right by children’s health.”
Kennedy is slated to appear Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing that was scheduled before the Monarez firing. The CDC shakeup is certain to become a topic of questioning, although Cassidy — the chair of HELP and a member of the Finance Committee — wouldn’t say what he planned to ask the HHS secretary.
“I haven’t thought of my questions yet,” Cassidy said, while adding that he and Kennedy “communicated over the break” but not during “the last couple days.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who sits on the HELP Committee, backed Cassidy’s calls for oversight.
“I was not pleased at all when Susan Monarez was asked to step down, and the vacancies in leadership that we now have at CDC. I’m encouraged that Chairman Cassidy wants to have some level of oversight within the committee on this,” she said. “I think that that’s important.”
Murkowski said she had begun to read Kennedy’s op-ed, published by the Wall Street Journal Tuesday, in which he defended his leadership over the CDC and said the center should re-focus its mission on infectious diseases.
“Saying that he wants to regain the trust and credibility and get back to the original mission of the CDC — hey, I don’t have a problem at all focusing on infectious diseases, making sure that you’ve got more epidemiologists in there. We want to have this based on science,” she said. “Right now, it just doesn’t feel that way.”
Kennedy is facing skepticism from other conservative senators.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who also voted to confirm Kennedy, on Tuesday described the CDC as a “goat rodeo” with “too much chaos.”
“We need to restore that confidence, and so far, I don’t see where Secretary Kennedy has done that,” Sen. Kennedy said. “All I see over there, at the moment, is a multi-vehicle pileup. I’m not saying that Secretary Kennedy is wrong or right. I’m not a medical doctor. I’m not qualified to say. … When I met with Bobby in my office, I told him, I said, ‘Your job number one is to restore the confidence of the American people and the institution of public health in America.’ And so far, he hasn’t done that. All I see is chaos.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the CDC has “had its challenges.”
“I think that the president shaking it up is not — it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody,” he said. “That said, the CDC, like most agencies, is better with some stability, and so hopefully the ship can get corrected — get the right people in leadership and move forward.”
But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. — who aligns more with Secretary Kennedy in his criticism of vaccine rules, and has celebrated the exodus of CDC officials — questioned Cassidy’s approach.
“He’s taking a position that I think he’s having trouble defending with me,” Paul said, noting that he was siding with the HHS secretary out of sincere agreement: “This isn’t me just supporting the president.”
Meanwhile, the ranking member on the HELP Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has demanded a bipartisan investigation and immediate public hearing into the recent CDC firing and resignations. He has also called on Kennedy to resign.
“The reality is that Secretary Kennedy has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines,” Sanders wrote in the New York Times. “Now, as head of H.H.S., he is using his authority to launch a full-blown war on science, on public health and on truth itself.”
