The Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz on a 51-to-44 vote as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, giving the agency its first Senate-confirmed leader in nearly a year and handing her three simultaneous outbreak responses on day one.
Schwartz, a physician and attorney who served as deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration and as chief medical officer for the Coast Guard, is the first Black woman to lead the agency, according to CBS News. She takes over from a series of acting leaders, most recently NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who had run the agency since February. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia was the only Democrat to vote in her favor.
