The Senate health committee voted on partisan lines Wednesday morning to approve President Donald Trump’s nominee for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, Susan Monarez, advancing her to a vote in the full Senate.

Monarez, who was serving as the acting director of the agency before Trump nominated her for the full-time post, advanced without a single Democratic vote, with all 12 Republicans on the panel voting to confirm. 

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If Monarez is confirmed, she will be in a position to either endorse or reject the vaccine recommendations of the CDC’s outside panel of experts that was recently overhauled by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Last month, Kennedy fired all 17 of the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, and replaced them with eight outsiders more aligned with his skeptical view of vaccines. 

During their first meeting, the ACIP members voted to launch a review of the “cumulative effects” of ingredients in the childhood vaccine schedule and voted to no longer recommend a small section of flu vaccines containing the controversial mercury-based preservative thimerosal.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in his opening statement on Wednesday stressed the importance of the CDC directorship, mentioning the ongoing measles crisis that has proliferated “due to misinformation regarding measles vaccines.”

Cases of measles in the United States are at the highest level in more than 30 years since the disease was declared eradicated. Vaccination rates have declined as trust in public health recommendations has declined. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the ranking Democrat on the committee, voted against Monarez, saying that she had “done nothing to stand in the way” of Kennedy’s policies on vaccines and “stood by while Secretary Kennedy spread misinformation about vaccines.”

During her confirmation hearing, which was held concurrently with the first ACIP meeting since Kennedy reformed the body, Monarez repeated to senators on both sides of the aisle her belief in the importance of vaccines.

The agency nominee steered clear of criticizing Kennedy for overhauling the panel while simultaneously arguing that the panel “must make sure that it is using science and evidence” in its decision-making.

Monarez is the first CDC Director to undergo Senate approval after the selection process for the role was changed by Congress in the wake of controversy regarding the agency’s power during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If confirmed by the full Senate, she will also be the first CDC director not to be a medical doctor, instead holding a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

She has extensive experience in government medical service, working for various biomedical research agencies under the Department of Homeland Security prior to her appointment to the CDC’s Research Project Agency for Health in 2023. 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said, even if Trump had chosen “the best CDC director in the world,” it would not change that there is an “anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist” at the helm of HHS, referring to Kennedy. 

Murray also criticized Cassidy’s leadership, saying that the committee “has all but abandoned” its oversight role over HHS. 

“I do hope Dr. Monarez will defy my expectations,” said Murray.

A full Senate vote for Monarez’s confirmation will likely be scheduled in the coming days.