Senate votes to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director

Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, was nominated by Trump in April.

ByMary KekatosABCNews logo
Wednesday, August 5, 2026 9:54PM
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The Senate voted on Wednesday to confirm Dr. Erica Schwartz as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Schwartz was confirmed in a 51-44 vote that generally fell along party lines.

Erica Schwartz testifies during a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions committee confirmation hearing to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Washington.
Erica Schwartz testifies during a hearing to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Washington.
AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

She will replace Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), who took over as acting CDC director in February, and become the first permanent director in about a year.

Schwartz earned a medical degree from Brown University and served in the U.S. Navy until 2005.

She served in theU.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, as the Coast Guard Chief Medical Officer and as Deputy Surgeon General from 2019 to early 2021, during the first Trump administration.

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