By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The US Senate health committee will hold a confirmation hearing on Thursday for Heidi Overton, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the embattled FDA, as it also weighs advancing his surgeon general nominee.
Trump nominated Overton, a White House policy aide, in August, turning to an “America First” ally to steady an agency shaken by staff losses, low morale and fights over vaccines, the abortion pill and drug approvals.
If confirmed, Overton will take over a Food and Drug Administration that has lost more than 3,000 staff over the past year, including division heads, and is under pressure to rebuild confidence among industry and public-health groups.
The agency, responsible for regulating and approving all drugs, treatments and vaccines, has faced concerns it has become too political.
Overton, a preventive medicine physician and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, previously worked at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank. Her nomination coincides with new initiatives from Trump health officials on autism, vaccines and the abortion pill.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the panel’s Republican chairman and a physician increasingly critical of the administration’s approach to immunization, is likely to press Overton on vaccines.
She spoke at a White House event last month where Trump signed an executive order seeking to cut back the childhood vaccination schedule and split the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three shots, a move physicians’ groups and vaccine makers strongly oppose.
Overton is also likely to be pressed on whether she would defy Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, or Trump, if ordered to take actions she deems unscientific or illegal. That question has become a fixture of recent confirmation hearings for Trump health nominees.
Overton’s anti-abortion views are expected to draw Democratic scrutiny and opposition from abortion-rights advocates. Overton called the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade “a huge victory for life,” and anti-abortion groups have welcomed her nomination.
If confirmed, Overton would inherit an FDA review of the abortion pill mifepristone that abortion-rights groups say is politically motivated and that could lead to tighter restrictions on the drug. The agency faces an October 7 deadline to update a federal court on its progress.
The committee is also scheduled to vote on Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News contributor, for surgeon general.
Saphier, Trump’s third nominee, was grilled last week on childhood vaccines, voicing support for immunization as she seeks a role in an administration pursuing sweeping changes to vaccine guidance. Pressed by Cassidy to say vaccines do not cause autism, a debunked link that Kennedy has promoted contrary to scientific evidence, she eventually agreed they do not.
The United States has had no surgeon general since Trump took office in January 2025, and the FDA has lacked a permanent leader since Dr. Marty Makary resigned in May after clashes with White House officials.
(Reporting by Ahmed AbouleneinEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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