Congressional Glance
After months weathering staffing cuts and disease outbreaks without an official leader, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally has a new director.
The Senate confirmed Susan Monarez, a health scientist and longtime civil servant, to run the public health agency. She is the first CDC director to be confirmed by the Senate under a law passed in 2023, and the first to serve in the role without a medical degree in more than 70 years. The vote was 51-47, along party lines.
Monarez takes over an agency in chaos, according to employees who have spoken to NPR. Thousands of workers have left in recent months and support for many programs has been cut. President Trump has proposed slashing CDC's funding for fiscal year 2026.
"We really need her in this role," says Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, who has known Monarez professionally for more than a decade. "She's a loyal, hardworking civil servant who leads with evidence and pragmatism, and has been dedicated to improving the health of Americans for the entirety of her career."
Over two dozen Senate Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration lead an independent investigation into the killing of Palestinian American Sayfollah Musallet by Israeli settlers earlier this month, calling out the U.S. government’s historic failure to act on other Israeli killings of Americans like Shireen Abu Akleh and Ayșenur Ezgi Eygi.
The House could vote on final passage of the Trump administration's rescission package, which claws back $9 billion in funds allocated for public media and foreign aid, as early as Thursday evening.
Last Wednesday, 14 Republican and Democratic senators took a chummy photo with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges.
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