Dr. Nicole Saphier advanced out of a key Senate panel on a 12-11 vote, moving President Trump’s third surgeon general nominee closer to confirmation over Democratic vaccine objections.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted Wednesday to send the radiologist’s nomination to the full Senate, NBC News reported. Timothy Westlake, tapped as assistant secretary for mental health and substance use at the Department of Health and Human Services, advanced on the same en bloc vote.
Full Senate timing remains unclear. The nominees are expected to win approval.
Saphier is President Donald Trump’s third pick for the post after earlier choices stalled. She is a radiologist and former Fox News Channel contributor who directs breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Her confirmation hearing took place Sept. 16 in Washington. Senators pressed her hard on childhood vaccines, autism claims, and the hepatitis B birth dose.
Saphier told lawmakers she does “not believe childhood vaccines cause autism.” She also called the MMR shot the country’s strongest defense against measles.
At the hearing she said the universal birth dose of hepatitis B was safe and effective. Ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders still vowed to vote no.
Sanders argued she “has questioned the need for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, when the data science has been clear.” He framed the choice in blunt terms.
"We need a surgeon general who will tell the truth about vaccines, not someone who misleads the public"
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy led the vaccine inquiry. He pressed Saphier on any autism link and on whether parents should give children the MMR shot. Cassidy ultimately voted to advance her.
Just The News noted Saphier is Trump’s third surgeon general nominee after Dr. Casey Means failed to gain enough Senate support. During the hearing she affirmed support for vaccines and rejected any autism link.
Reuters reported she follows the withdrawals of Casey Means and Janette Nesheiwat. HHS describes the surgeon general as the “Nation’s Doctor,” charged with giving Americans the best scientific information on health and injury risk.
Trump recently called for spacing out MMR shots, against guidance from medical groups. His administration has also sought to revisit long-running claims about vaccines and autism. Saphier’s hearing answers put her on the opposite side of the autism claim.
That did not satisfy committee Democrats. The 12-11 vote tracked the partisan split and sent the fight to the floor.
Chris Klomp, nominated as deputy secretary of HHS and already serving as the department’s chief counselor under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., cleared the Senate Finance Committee last week on a 15-12 vote.
Sen. Ron Wyden protested that nomination. He said Klomp “tried to create the impression that he will be the adult in the room on vaccines. Yet, as we sit here today, the vaccine chaos that we’ve come to expect from Robert Kennedy’s HHS continues.”
Klomp faced vaccine questions in the same hearing cycle as Saphier. Westlake’s en bloc advance paired mental-health leadership with the surgeon general fight in one package.
None of the three faces an announced floor date. All three remain on track for expected Senate approval once leaders schedule the votes.
The public record from the hearing shows a nominee who rejected the autism claim, defended MMR as the top measles tool, and called the hepatitis B birth dose safe and effective. Sanders still cast her as someone who misleads the public on shots.
Cassidy’s yes vote came only after he forced those declarations on the record. The committee then advanced her by a single vote.
Surgeon general nominees usually draw less drama than Cabinet posts. This one became a proxy fight over vaccine orthodoxy inside the Trump HHS orbit and Kennedy’s leadership of the department.
Saphier’s path now depends on floor scheduling, not another committee gate. Democrats have already drawn their line. Republicans on HELP chose confirmation over the ranking member’s demand for a different kind of surgeon general.
Patients and parents get a nation’s doctor who put her vaccine positions on the record under oath. Senate Democrats decided that was still not enough.
