Senators green-lighted two votes in the past 24 hours centered on the country’s past and future public health leadership.
This morning, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8-7 on party lines to advance a contempt vote for Anthony Fauci, M.D., the longtime former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the face of the federal government’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
The 85-year-old had been summoned by the committee last week but without exception invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned, describing the scrutiny as an “unhinged obsession” on the part of Chairman Rand Paul, M.D., R-Kentucky.
That comes just a day after a majority of the full Senate voted to confirm Erica Schwartz, M.D., as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, filling a nearly year-long vacancy at an agency strained by clashes between political appointees and career staffers.
The 51-44 vote saw support from all of the chamber’s Republicans and a single Democrat, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
The federal response to COVID-19 looms large over both actions, though more directly over the proceedings regarding Fauci.
The former official had retired in 2022, and received a preemptive pardon from President Joe Biden that covers his actions through Jan. 19, 2025. However, frustrations from Republicans critical of shutdowns and other public health responses to the pandemic have maintained their condemnation of Fauci. Paul recently publicized a personal journal written on a government computer by Fauci that outlined his initial uncertainty regarding the virus, reactions to his growing personal profile and cash prizes for which he sought required government ethics approvals.
Fauci and Paul have frequently sparred in prior congressional hearings, particularly over the question of how the coronavirus that caused the pandemic originated and whether U.S. government funding was involved. Paul and current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another pandemic response critic, who passed along the journal to the senator, have said in recent weeks that statements Fauci might give under oath regarding past actions could expose him to prosecution despite the pardon.
Fauci referenced that intent in his statement to the committee last week, describing the current investigation as a departure from the 200-plus times he has previously appeared before Congress.
“Any reasonable person who has followed [Paul’s] unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” Fauci said. “Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government, and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”
Paul, during Thursday morning’s committee hearing where the contempt vote was held, said the action was necessary to ensure Congress can enact legislative reforms ahead of a future pandemic.
“A subpoena with no consequence is not a subpoena—it’s a suggestion,” he said. “Seeking the truth is not a witch hunt. Accountability is not vengeance. Accountability is what stands between the American people and a repeat of the mistakes and the very real consequences of the past.”
Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the committee’s leading Democrat, criticized Paul’s “rushed investigation” and contended that criminal content is a “punitive” that would not compel Fauci to provide additional information. Rather, it “could harm our ability to conduct future investigations and disregards constitutional protections long recognized by the U.S. Senate."
The standard next step of full vote in the Senate will determine whether he is referred to the Department of Justice, which would require 60 votes. Paul, however, has reportedly said he intends to have the resolution brought to the Justice Department directly after the committee’s vote, a break from norms that Democrats said would circumvent federal law.
Of note, there is a concurrent investigation into Fauci and others being conducted by another Homeland Security Committee member, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, that has obtained Fauci’s government-issued cell phone.
Schwartz assumes CDC director mantle
Somewhat less controversial was Wednesday’s confirmation of Schwartz as CDC director.
Lawmakers from both parties have spoken glowingly of her credentials and experience, as she is a board-certified preventive medicine physician and served as deputy surgeon general at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during Trump's first term. She also has a law degree and a master's of public health. She is a retired rear admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, and she previously served as chief medical officer of the U.S. Coast Guard.
The primary hang-up during her confirmation hearing and earlier Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee go-ahead vote was whether she—like her predecessor Susan Monarez, Ph.D., who was fired less than a month into the job—would stand up to likely pressure from Kennedy to overlook established science on vaccine safety as he and other appointed officials work to whittle down the childhood vaccine schedule.
Schwartz affirmed her support for vaccines and medical evidence, telling senators she “will never betray the science” on these issues. However, many lawmakers proved unconvinced when Schwartz, when pressed, said she does “not believe that the president or the secretary” would assert such pressure.
Schwartz’ nomination was moved forward last week by the HELP Committee, with Chairman Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-Louisiana, who has feuded with Kennedy on vaccines, saying that he had received personal reassurances from Schwartz and others that “she knows what she is doing and will stand against those who do not.”
Wednesday afternoon’s full Senate vote formally names the 54-year-old CDC’s 22nd director. The agency has lost about a third of its workforce under the new administration due to a combination of layoffs and resignations. Many longtime staff and former leaders describing frequent clashes with political appointees and low morale under Kennedy, whom they note has often criticized the agency for its COVID-19 response and offered limited sympathy following a shooting outside CDC’s headquarters last year.