A Senate committee advanced Dr. Nicole Saphier’s surgeon general nomination on a tight party-line vote Wednesday, moving President Trump’s third pick forward despite Democratic attacks over childhood vaccines.
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted 12-11 to send Saphier’s nomination to the full Senate, the Associated Press reported. Timothy Westlake, nominated as assistant secretary for mental health and substance use at the Department of Health and Human Services, advanced on the same en bloc vote.
No Democrats backed the move. The margin left little doubt about the partisan split over who should serve as the nation’s top public-health messenger.
Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News contributor, is President Trump’s third choice for surgeon general after earlier nominees failed to lock down enough Senate support. A full Senate confirmation vote is expected, though the timing is not yet clear.
Ranking member Sen. Bernie Sanders said ahead of the vote that he would oppose Saphier. He accused her of undercutting established guidance on a routine newborn shot.
Sanders argued she “has questioned the need for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, when the data science has been clear.”
"We need a surgeon general who will tell the truth about vaccines, not someone who misleads the public."
That framing treated disagreement as deception. It also ignored what Saphier told the committee under questioning earlier this month.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, pressed her on whether childhood vaccines cause autism. Saphier answered that she does “not believe childhood vaccines cause autism,” and added that “the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles.” She also said the universal birth dose of hepatitis B is safe and effective.
Cassidy ultimately voted to advance her. Key Republicans who had wanted clear answers on immunization got them, and still faced a unified Democratic no.
Reuters reported that Trump nominated Saphier in April after withdrawing prior picks 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.
National Review noted that Saphier, 44, serves as director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Monmouth. Trump praised her as a standout physician and a communicator who makes complicated health issues understandable.
The committee vote itself had been postponed from Sept. 24 over attendance conflicts. When it finally happened, the result tracked party lines: 12-11, with Democrats locked against her even after her on-the-record support for childhood immunization.
The Washington Examiner reported that Saphier’s assurances on vaccines put her at odds with parts of the broader Trump coalition. That did not stop committee Republicans from advancing a nominee who rejected the autism link and defended the measles shot.
Saphier was not the only health nominee clearing committee. Chris Klomp, nominated as deputy secretary of HHS and currently chief counselor under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee last week on a 15-12 vote.
Klomp faced questions in the same hearing cycle about his duties and vaccine stance. Sen. Ron Wyden protested the nomination and tied it to broader complaints about HHS.
Wyden 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.”
Democrats used the same hearing track to cast doubt on the entire leadership slate. Republicans kept moving the nominees.
The Trump administration has sought to revisit claims about a link between vaccines and autism. The president has also called for MMR shots to be spaced out, against the guidance of medical groups. Saphier’s testimony drew a brighter line: no autism link, strong defense of the measles vaccine, and support for the hepatitis B birth dose as safe and effective.
That record was on the table when Sanders still branded her a public misleader. The committee majority was not persuaded.
Westlake’s mental-health and substance-use post advanced with Saphier. Klomp is already out of Finance. All three now wait on the full Senate, where approval is expected even if the calendar has not been set.
The surgeon general does not write drug approvals or run the CDC. The job still shapes what millions of Americans hear about shots, chronic disease, and everyday risk. Democrats treated a radiologist who affirmed core childhood vaccines as unfit for that microphone. Republicans treated her answers as enough.
Voters who want public-health leadership that can question old habits without denying basic tools just watched the committee choose the latter course, and send the fight to the Senate floor.
