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News and updates

Trump delays naming new CDC Director

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The White House remains on a time crunch to name a permanent director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Under federal law, Senate-confirmed positions have a 210-day limit on being led by acting replacements, a deadline which passed last night. The Health Department announced yesterday that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will continue to oversee the CDC until the agency has a permanent director, adding that Health Secretary RFK Jr. and Chris Klomp are leading the search.

President Trump has not yet announced his pick, as the administration struggles to find a nominee that aligns with Secretary Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, while avoiding enough of his vaccine stances to be able to win Senate confirmation.

The administration’s health agenda received a major blow last week when a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked several of Kennedy’s vaccine policies from being implemented. Ruling on a lawsuit brought by six prominent medical organizations, Judge Brian Murphy said that the federal government had not based its decisions on science in limiting Covid shots and revising the childhood vaccine schedule. The ruling also reversed all decisions made by panelists that Kennedy had appointed to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. An appeal is expected, but lawyers for the plaintiffs celebrated this as “a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law, and the American people.”

Trump administration announces student loan office will move to Treasury Department

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As part of the Trump administration’s ongoing pledge to dismantle the Education Department, the agency plans to shift the federal government’s student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department.

Moving the nearly $1.7 trillion portfolio out of ED has been a longtime goal for conservatives. In March, President Trump caught many by surprise by announcing the student loan portfolio would transfer to the Small Business Authority, a move which promoted immediate backlash and legal challenges. The Treasury Department has been a more popular choice for others in the administration. Following the announcement on Thursday, Secretary Scott Bessent said, “Treasury has the unique experience, the operational capability and the financial expertise to bring long overdue financial discipline to the program and be better stewards of taxpayer dollars.”

Senior officials at ED did not offer a timeline or estimated cost of this move, but said it would unfold in three stages, beginning with shifting management of student loans for borrowers in default. Those loans add up to $180 billion, roughly 11% of the student loan portfolio. Eventually, the Treasury Department plans to take responsibility for all student loans.

A fact sheet provided by the administration highlighted decades of mismanagement with the student loan portfolio, and promised that with this change, students and families “will continue to receive the high-quality service they have come to expect under the Trump administration.”

But critics feel undertaking a move of this magnitude will be costly and complex, the latest in a string of interagency agreements that aim to gradually dismantle the Education Department. Shutting down the department would require Congressional approval, but the Trump administration has moved to transfer more responsibilities away from ED throughout the last year. In November, the department moved the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education to the Labor Department.

Jim O’Neill nominated as NSF director

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President Trump has nominated Jim O’Neill to serve as Director of the National Science Foundation. His name was among a list of nominations sent to the Senate yesterday morning. O’Neill was removed from his position as deputy secretary of HHS last month as part of a broader restructuring, which also saw Jay Bhattacharya named acting CDC director. The NSF has been without a permanent leader since last April, when director Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned as the Trump administration cut hundreds of research grants and proposed massive budget cuts.

O’Neill served as a senior HHS official during the George W. Bush administration, before moving to the private sector, where he worked closer with Peter Thiel. He was the managing director at Thiel’s Mithril Capital Management and also served as CEO of the Thiel Foundation, before joining the second Trump administration as deputy HHS secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, O’Neill would be the first non-scientist to lead the NSF.

Senate HELP committee to vote on key bills

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 On Thursday, February 26, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will vote on several significant bills regarding access to quality education and health care.

The bills under consideration include:

  • S. 1602, Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Education Act
  • S. 1558, Understanding the True Cost of College Act of 2025
  • S. 3747, Home School Graduation Recognition Act
  • S. 1782, Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act
  • S. 1552, Living Donor Protection Act of 2025
  • S. 3315, Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2025

Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026

Time: 10:00 AM ET/ 9:00 AM CT

Location: 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Link to watch live

Jay Bhattacharya named acting CDC director

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Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the head of the NIH, is set to become acting director of the CDC, according to administration officials. He will continue to run the NIH, serving both positions until President Trump appoints a permanent CDC director that gets confirmed by the Senate.

Bhattacharya will replace Jim O’Neill, who was removed last week by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as part of a broader restructuring. White House officials said President Trump will name O’Neill to lead the National Science Foundation.

O’Neill was confirmed by the Senate last June as deputy secretary of HHS and had been leading the CDC temporarily after the ousting of Susan Monarez in August following her disagreements with Secretary Kennedy over vaccine recommendations. O’Neill led the CDC through its most controversial changes to vaccine policy, including removing meningitis, flu, hepatitis A, and rotavirus from the list of routinely recommended vaccines.

The restructuring also promotes Chris Klomp, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to chief counselor overseeing all HHS operations.

The leadership shake-up comes as administration officials look to focus on President Trump’s health policy moves, particularly his push to lower drug prices, ahead of the midterm elections.