Former Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez is showing earlier than the Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions on Wednesday for her first public look since she was pushed out of her place main the nation’s public well being company.
Republican Sen. Invoice Cassidy, the panel’s chair and a physician from Louisiana who was one of many key votes to substantiate Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., mentioned he was targeted on studying what led to the abrupt firing of Monarez simply weeks after her affirmation.
“A part of our accountability right now is to ask ourselves, if somebody is fired 29 days after each Republican votes for her, the Senate confirms her, the secretary mentioned in her swearing in that she has ‘unimpeachable scientific credentials’ and the president known as her an unimaginable mom and devoted public servant — like what occurred? Did we fail? Was there one thing we must always have carried out in another way?” Cassidy mentioned.
Monarez, in her opening assertion, gave an in depth timeline on the chain of occasions that she mentioned led to her ouster.
“Since my elimination, a number of explanations have been provided: that I instructed the secretary I might resign, that I used to be not aligned with administration priorities, or that I used to be untrustworthy. None of these replicate what really occurred,” Monarez mentioned.
Monarez mentioned there was a gathering wherein she says Kennedy instructed her to preemptively settle for suggestions from a CDC vaccine advisory panel and to fireplace profession officers overseeing vaccine coverage.
“I might not decide to that, and I imagine it’s the true purpose I used to be fired,” Monarez mentioned. She later added, “I used to be fired for holding the road on scientific integrity.”
She additionally claimed that Kennedy spoke to the White Home “a number of occasions” previous to the assembly about firing her.
Former Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention Director Susan Monarez arrives to testify earlier than a Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, September 17, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
Kennedy, in his listening to earlier than the Senate Finance Committee on Sept. 4, disputed Monarez’s model of occasions, which she first shared that very same day in an op-ed revealed by the Wall Road Journal.
“Did you, in actual fact, do what Director Monarez has mentioned you probably did, which is inform her, ‘Simply go together with vaccine suggestions, even should you did not suppose such suggestions aligned with scientific proof?'” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested Kennedy.
“No, I didn’t,” Kennedy replied.
In a fiery alternate with Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Warren famous that Kennedy had only a month earlier than described Monarez as “unimpeachable” after she was confirmed.
“I instructed her that she needed to resign as a result of I requested her, ‘Are you a reliable particular person?’ And she or he mentioned, ‘No,'” Kennedy replied. “In the event you had an worker who instructed you they weren’t reliable, would you ask them to resign, Senator?”
Monarez on Wednesday, nevertheless, testified Kennedy instructed her the childhood vaccine schedule can be altering in September and “I wanted to be on board with it.” Monarez mentioned Kennedy spoke to President Trump “each day” about altering the childhood vaccine schedule.
“He didn’t have any knowledge or science to level to,” Monarez mentioned. “As a matter of reality, we bought into an alternate the place I had steered that I might be open to altering childhood vaccine schedules if the proof or science had been supportive, and he responded that there was no science or proof related to the childhood vaccine schedule. And he elaborated that CDC had by no means collected the science or knowledge to make it accessible associated to the security and efficacy.
“To be clear, he mentioned there was not science or knowledge, however that he nonetheless anticipated you to vary the schedule?” Sen. Cassidy requested.
“Right,” Monarez mentioned.
Chairman Sen. Invoice Cassidy speaks throughout a listening to with the Senate Committee on Well being, Schooling, Labor, and Pensions within the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing, September 17, 2025 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs
Monarez is being joined at Wednesday’s listening to by Deb Houry, former chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science on the CDC, who was one in all 4 prime CDC officers who resigned in protest after Monarez was ousted.
The high-profile departures raised alarm over Kennedy’s vaccine coverage agenda, which the general public well being officers mentioned they had been being requested to endorse with out satisfactory science. Kennedy stood by the latest shakeups at CDC, saying they had been “completely crucial changes to revive the company to its position because the world’s gold customary public well being company with a central mission of defending Individuals from infectious illness.”
Sen. Cassidy instructed Monarez and Houry on Wednesday that “the onus is upon you to show that the criticisms leveled by the secretary are usually not true.”
Cassidy’s choice to pursue oversight of the CDC turmoil signifies a brand new, firmer period for his relationship with Kennedy — a shift was on full show throughout Kennedy’s personal listening to earlier than the Senate earlier this month.
The senator accused Kennedy of undermining President Donald Trump’s legacy on Operation Warp Speed, the federal government effort that fast-tracked the COVID vaccine, and instructed him latest FDA adjustments to COVID vaccines had been “denying” individuals entry.
Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who sits on the HELP Committee and has known as for Kennedy to step down, mentioned Cassidy’s choice to name Monarez to testify confirmed a continued “weakening” of assist for the secretary.
“I believe Secretary Kennedy’s actions on the Finance Committee left numerous not simply Democrats, however Republicans very unsettled,” Blunt Rochester instructed ABC Information in an interview.
“The truth that a Republican is chairing the committee and known as for her to return is a constructive step, and perhaps reveals there’s some weakening. However the actuality is, you understand, Secretary Kennedy must go — whether or not that’s he is fired, whether or not he quits, he’s unsafe for America,” she mentioned.
Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr is interviewed exterior of the White Home West Wing, September 9, 2025 in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photographs
Through the Senate Finance Committee listening to on Sept. 4, Cassidy was joined by two different Republicans on the committee — Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second strongest GOP senator, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who introduced earlier this yr he was not operating for reelection — in expressing concern over Kennedy’s dealing with of vaccines and the CDC.
Different high-level Republicans have additionally voiced criticism, together with Senate Majority Chief John Thune, who mentioned Kennedy needed to “take accountability” for firing Monarez simply 4 weeks after the Senate confirmed her. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine mentioned she did not see any “justification” for the termination.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy, Cassidy’s counterpart in Louisiana, known as Kennedy’s dealing with of the CDC a “a number of car pileup.”
Monarez, who HHS publicly introduced was “now not director” on a Wednesday afternoon in late August, drew widespread consideration when she refused to depart her submit, asking Trump to weigh in and hearth her straight if he agreed along with his HHS secretary. She mentioned she was pushed out as a result of she would not comply with rubber-stamp Kennedy’s agenda or hearth high-ranking scientists.
The transfer put a highlight on Kennedy’s vaccine coverage adjustments, which have ramped up in latest weeks. Kennedy canceled round $500 million in contracts for mRNA vaccines, modified the suggestions for wholesome youngsters and pregnant girls to obtain COVID-19 vaccinations and, via the FDA, oversaw the narrowing of approval for the up to date COVID photographs this fall solely to individuals over 65, or youthful Individuals with underlying situations.
A CDC committee will quickly meet to debate vaccine suggestions extra broadly, together with the measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
Kennedy has changed the entire members of the committee with handpicked individuals, a few of whom have expressed criticism of vaccines. Requested by ABC Information if he plans to restrict entry to any of these vaccines, Kennedy mentioned the committee would resolve after a “actual gold customary scientific overview.”
Monarez on Wednesday expressed considerations with the composition of the advisory committee.
“Primarily based on what I noticed throughout my tenure, there’s actual danger that suggestions may very well be made proscribing entry to vaccines for kids and others in want with out rigorous scientific overview. With no everlasting CDC director in place, these suggestions may very well be adopted,” Monarez mentioned.
