The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted on Wednesday to approve Jay Bhatacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health. He is currently facing a glide pass to confirm in the full Senate.
Bhattacharya will work with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of Health and Human Services, on the scheduled overhaul of public health agencies.
NIH is the world's largest supporter of biomedical research, providing nearly $48 billion in scientific research through grants of 50,000 to hundreds of thousands of researchers in academic institutions and hospitals.
The Trump administration has already struck the scientific community with efforts to cut back on support at major research institutions, including public universities.
Batacharya, a health researcher and economist at Stanford University, was an outspoken critic of the lockdown orders and other safety measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He was pressed last week by the senator on vaccine research, drug prices, and stances on recent mass shootings and federal health agencies' funding cuts. He also spoke in support of Kennedy, who will become his boss.
“Kennedy is not a scientist, but his integrity has sought better research and more debate has repeated many Americans,” Batacharya told the senators at his confirmation hearing.
