WASHINGTON \u2014 Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chair of the health committee, is holding his cards close to the vest, declining to elaborate after he said he will conduct \u201coversight\u201d of the country’s top health official and a recent shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 he secured assurances about vaccines. Cassidy is also running for re-election next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassidy declined Tuesday to say whether he regrets his vote for Kennedy or whether he has confidence in him after Kennedy triggered CDC Director Susan Monarez’s removal, leading to a spate of resignations by top CDC employees who accused Kennedy of undermining an influential vaccine committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am reserving judgment because we don\u2019t know who\u2019s right or wrong,\u201d Cassidy told NBC News in the Capitol. \u201cBut 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\u2019s health, and we need to focus on those issues related to children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked what he meant in a statement Friday that his committee \u201cwill conduct oversight,\u201d Cassidy said his primary concern is addressing \u201cthe allegations floating out there\u201d about \u201cchildren\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to multiple members of my Republican caucus,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cThey also think that we need to make sure we\u2019re doing right by children\u2019s health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy is scheduled to appear Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing that was scheduled before Monarez was fired. The CDC shake-up is certain to become a topic of questioning, although Cassidy \u2014 who is also a member of the Finance Committee \u2014 would not say what he planned to ask Kennedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI haven\u2019t thought of my questions yet,\u201d Cassidy said, adding that he and Kennedy \u201ccommunicated over the break\u201d but not during \u201cthe last couple days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who is on the HELP Committee, backed Cassidy\u2019s calls for oversight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI 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\u2019m encouraged that Chairman Cassidy wants to have some level of oversight within the committee on this,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Murkowski said she had begun to read Kennedy’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, in which he defended his leadership over the CDC and said it should re-focus its mission on infectious diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Saying that he wants to regain the trust and credibility and get back to the original mission of the CDC \u2014 hey, I don\u2019t have a problem at all focusing on infectious diseases, making sure that you\u2019ve got more epidemiologists in there. We want to have this based on science,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now, it just doesn\u2019t feel that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy faces skepticism from other conservative senators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who also voted to confirm him, described the CDC on Tuesday as a \u201cgoat rodeo\u201d with \u201ctoo much chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to restore that confidence, and so far, I don\u2019t see where Secretary Kennedy has done that,\u201d Sen. Kennedy said. \u201cAll I see over there, at the moment, is a multivehicle pileup. I\u2019m not saying that Secretary Kennedy is wrong or right. I\u2019m not a medical doctor. I\u2019m not qualified to say. … When I met with Bobby in my office, I told him, I said, \u2018Your job No. 1 is to restore the confidence of the American people and the institution of public health in America.\u2019 And so far, he hasn\u2019t done that. All I see is chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said the CDC has \u201chad its challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that the president shaking it up is not \u2014 it shouldn\u2019t be a surprise to anybody,\u201d he said. \u201cThat said, the CDC, like most agencies, is better with some stability, and so hopefully the ship can get corrected \u2014 get the right people in leadership and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. \u2014 who aligns more with Secretary Kennedy in his criticism of vaccine rules and has celebrated the exodus of CDC officials \u2014 questioned Cassidy\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s taking a position that I think he\u2019s having trouble defending with me,\u201d Paul said, adding that he was siding with Kennedy out of sincere agreement: \u201cThis isn\u2019t me just supporting the president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the ranking member on the HELP Committee, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has demanded a bipartisan investigation and an immediate public hearing into the recent CDC firing and resignations. He has also called on Kennedy to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe reality is that Secretary Kennedy has profited from and built a career on sowing mistrust in vaccines,\u201d Sanders wrote<\/a> in The New York Times. \u201cNow, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n