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The Senate health committee held a confirmation hearing for Heidi Overton, Trump's pick to lead the FDA. The preventive medicine physician and White House policy aide faces tough questions on vaccines, the abortion pill mifepristone, and whether she'd push back against politically motivated directives. The FDA has been leaderless since May and has shed over 3,000 staff in the past year.
The U.S. Senate health committee convened a confirmation hearing on September 24 for Heidi Overton, President Trump's nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Overton, a preventive medicine physician and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, was tapped in August to stabilize an agency that has faced staff exodus, low morale, and intense political scrutiny over vaccines and drug approvals.
Senators pressed Overton on several flashpoints: her stance on childhood vaccines (she appeared at a White House event where Trump signed an executive order to cut the vaccination schedule and split the MMR vaccine into three separate shots), the future of the abortion pill mifepristone, and whether she would resist unscientific or unlawful directives from superiors like HHS Secretary RFK Jr. The committee also advanced a vote on surgeon general nominee Nicole Saphier, who affirmed that vaccines do not cause autism after pointed questioning.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: The FDA oversees the safety and approval of all drugs, vaccines, and treatments in the U.S. With the agency politically embattled and understaffed, who leads it — and how independently — has enormous implications for public health, drug access, and scientific credibility.
