{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-marshall-questions-cdc-aspr-nominees-on-americas-public-health-preparedness/", "Senator Marshall Questions CDC, ASPR Nominees on America\u2019s Public Health Preparedness", "2026-07-15", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "KS", "Roger Marshall", "M001198", "www.marshall.senate.gov", "marshall", "https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "Senator Marshall Questions HHS Nominees at Senate HELP Committee\n\nWashington \u2013 On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), questioned President Trump\u2019s nominees to lead two of the nation\u2019s top public health agencies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing. The witnesses included Sean Kaufman, M.P.H., nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Dr. Erica Schwartz, nominee to serve as Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).\n\nThroughout the hearing, Senator Marshall emphasized restoring trust in public health, strengthening America\u2019s preparedness for future pandemics, supporting innovation through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and reducing the nation\u2019s dependence on foreign sources of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).\n\nClick HERE to download the full video.\n\nHighlights from the hearing include:\n\nSenator Marshall: \u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman. For both of you, I\u2019m going to ask you in a second about active pharmaceutical ingredients. You don\u2019t have to tell me what the problem is\u2014I want to talk about solutions. But before I get to that, I just want to compliment both of you. Dr. Schwartz, you have one of the most qualified r\u00e9sum\u00e9s I\u2019ve seen in front of this committee. You\u2019re a two-star admiral\u2014just incredible. Congratulations, and thank you. Most importantly, thank you for your character, your culture, your values, and all those things that I hope my kids and grandkids will look up to and say, \u201cThat\u2019s the type of person I want to be, and that\u2019s the type of position I want to have.\u201d And Mr. Kaufman, I think you\u2019re the right person for ASPR right now. I think it\u2019s always good to go back and look at the fundamentals. So, what is ASPR? This is something I didn\u2019t know much about until I got here, even though I\u2019m a physician. It\u2019s the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. Your motto is, \u201cStand Ready. Move Fast.\u201d Your charge is overseeing medical and public health preparedness, response, and recovery. And I believe that, for such a time as this, you\u2019ve been prepared to do this job. Your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 reflects hands-on experience inside public health laboratories, frontline response experience to anthrax threats, and West Nile virus. You understand federal infrastructure and interagency coordination. You\u2019ve led private-sector innovation in behavioral safety and disaster preparedness. Mr. Kaufman, you combine deep technical knowledge, real-world response experience, and proven leadership\u2014exactly what we need to keep Americans safe. Now, so often, it seems like all this committee cares about is vaccines. In reality, that\u2019s maybe one percent of both of your worlds\u2014perhaps more, perhaps less. I happen to agree that there are concerns about mRNA technology. The protection is short-lived. These vaccines don\u2019t stop transmission of the virus. There are significant risks associated with them, especially for young males, particularly young males who already have positive antibodies. Like you, I gave different advice to my parents than I did to my kids. But I guess what I\u2019m looking for, Mr. Kaufman, is this: let\u2019s say it\u2019s the next virus, the next epidemic. Are you committed to making sure that America has access to whatever vaccines you deem safe and appropriate, so they can be put into the hands of doctors to make those recommendations for their patients?\u201d\n\nMr. Kaufman: \u201cSenator Marshall, thank you for the question. I also want to thank you. I\u2019ve actually done a lot of great work in your state at the USDA facility in Manhattan, and I want to acknowledge that the staff there is phenomenal and excellent as well. To answer your question, I will be committed to leading a phenomenal team at ASPR. Primarily, there\u2019s a small organization that many people may not have heard of\u2014an island of excellence\u2014called BARDA. BARDA is responsible not only for looking at new technologies, because what we face today is the ability of our adversaries to genetically modify organisms, creating novel threats that could put Americans drastically at risk, very similar to what we saw with COVID. So, BARDA is not only interested in creating vaccine countermeasures to protect Americans, but also therapeutics.\u201d\n\nSenator Marshall: \u201cMr. Kaufman, I\u2019m trying to get you some votes here. Are you committed to getting vaccines into the hands of doctors and nurses?\u201d\n\nMr. Kaufman: \u201cAbsolutely. One hundred percent. I\u2019m sorry I missed the softball.\u201d\n\nSenator Marshall: \u201cThere you go. Dr. Schwartz, I mentioned APIs. You and I both know what the huge problem is. What\u2019s the solution to bring API production back home?\u201d\n\nDr. Schwartz: \u201cSenator, I actually have to get smarter on that. I have to be brutally honest here\u2014I haven\u2019t really been following that issue. But I would definitely love to work with your team on it.\u201d\n\nSenator Marshall: \u201cMy guess is that the diagnostics you\u2019re using and the therapeutics you want available will require APIs, Mr. Kaufman. Now, maybe it\u2019s BARDA\u2019s turn.\u201d\n\nMr. Kaufman: \u201cThat\u2019s right. Yeah, there are new technologies. Right now, as you know, there\u2019s a problem, and I\u2019m so happy that you acknowledge it\u2019s actually a very, very big problem. BARDA can look at technologies that use different types of ingredients, helping reduce our dependence on adversaries and shifting toward more biologically based future countermeasures rather than chemical ones. So, there are different strategies and technologies that the scientists at BARDA are looking into and will continue to explore to help protect America.\u201d\n\nSenator Marshall: \u201cBut this is the problem that this committee needs to be looking at. This is the real problem. I mean, it\u2019s great to see manufacturing moving back here\u2014that we\u2019re making vaccines and we\u2019re making drugs again in this country\u2014but we don\u2019t have the APIs to do it, and very few companies are producing them. I hope this committee can take on that challenge and consider whatever we can do as a congressional body to address it as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-16T07:21:44Z", "2026-07-16T07:23:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.marshall.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-marshall-questions-cdc-aspr-nominees-on-americas-public-health-preparedness/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.004355028271675, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}