Two of President Donald Trump’s key public health nominations advanced at the committee level Thursday morning, moving them to consideration in the full Senate.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted on party lines to approve the nominations of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the nominee for National Institutes of Health director, and Dr. Marty Makary, the nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration.

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Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the panel’s chairman, said during the vote that public health in the United States is in a precarious position due to a lack of trust in federal health institutions from failed policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“To start, we need public health leaders committed to transparency and finding unbiased solutions to Americans’ most challenging health problems,” Cassidy said. “Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Makary have demonstrated that they are ready to take on this responsibility.”

Both Bhattacharya and Makary were grilled by Cassidy in their respective hearings last week on the issue of continuing to fund research into whether vaccines cause autism, a premise that researchers have dismissed for decades but has gained even more interest following COVID-19 vaccine mandates. 

During his hearing, Bhattacharya said that although he does not believe that vaccines cause autism, more research is necessary to assure genuinely concerned parents and reverse the tide of decreasing vaccination rates, especially for vulnerable children. 

Makary likewise assured the committee during his testimony last week that he was convinced by current data that vaccines are not linked to rising autism rates. 

During the committee vote Thursday morning, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said he was “alarmed” by reports that Makary supported appointing a Biden administration Department of Justice lawyer to be the chief counsel for the FDA. 

Although the lawyer, Hilary Perkins, was hired in 2019 during the Trump administration, she argued on behalf of the Biden administration’s deregulation of the abortion pill mifepristone as well as in favor of COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the height of the pandemic.

Hawley said that Perkins, as chief counsel, “frankly flew in the face” of Makary’s promises to lead an unbiased review of the safety of mifepristone abortions.

Amid controversy Wednesday, Makary withdrew his support of Perkins’s position on Thursday morning, and she resigned as FDA’s Chief Counsel, which prompted Hawley to once again support Makary’s nomination.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the Democrat on the committee, protested both Makary and Bhattacharya for not making a strong enough commitment to lowering the costs of healthcare and prescription drugs. 

The committee vote was supposed to be immediately followed by the confirmation hearing for Dave Weldon, another one of Trump’s public health picks, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

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But less than an hour before the hearing was supposed to commence Thursday morning, the White House withdrew Weldon’s nomination, multiple sources confirmed for the Washington Examiner. 

It is unclear whom the Trump administration will nominate for the vacant CDC position.