Chris Klomp, President Trump's nominee to become the second-ranking official at the Department of Health and Human Services, is scheduled to appear Wednesday morning before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, according to the committee's hearing announcement. The session follows a Tuesday Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing that also considered Ge Bai's nomination for an assistant HHS secretary post, according to STAT's D.C. Diagnosis newsletter on the Klomp hearings.
Democrats intend to use the hearings to challenge what they see as a false narrative that Klomp was elevated to restrain Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine impulses, Semafor reported, citing a Democratic aide. The questions matter to families because HHS oversees the agencies that shape vaccine recommendations, insurance rules, and Medicare drug pricing.
