Key facts
- Cassidy, the committee chair, said he cannot predict the outcome of the November 18 vote on Overton.
- Republicans hold a one-vote majority on the Senate Health Committee, the report said.
- Overton told her September confirmation hearing the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was safe and effective.
- Trump nominated Overton about three months after FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health Committee, said on November 15 that questions remain about President Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Heidi Overton, ahead of the committee's vote on her nomination on November 18. Asked on CBS News' "Face the Nation" whether Overton would be approved, Cassidy said, "I don't know that." He said he had been "working the phones all week" and had spoken with Overton and with "four or five of my down-dais Republican members."
Cassidy said he had heard from people who "think deeply about the FDA" that "it's better to have a steady hand," while others offered a "different opinion." He said he worried about leaving the Senate in January without an FDA commissioner in place, but added that "we're not going to have perfection." He said the choice was between short-term administrators who would probably take more direction from the health secretary and a permanent commissioner able to establish some independence.
Republicans hold a single vote majority on the panel, so losing one member would be enough to sink the nomination if all Democrats oppose it. Overton is a top domestic policy adviser at the White House and a former chief policy adviser at a conservative think tank. At her September confirmation hearing she said the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was "safe and effective," pushing back on Trump's claims that the vaccine could be dangerous. If confirmed, she would inherit the FDA's safety review of the abortion pill mifepristone.
Trump nominated Overton about three months after the resignation of FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, his first confirmed pick to lead the agency. Cassidy previously said he met with Overton on November 10 and remained undecided. The report said he appeared to tie her nomination and that of National Science Foundation nominee James O'Neill to promises Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made to secure Cassidy's own confirmation vote, which the report said have since been broken.