Senate Advances Funding Bill, Confirms New CDC Director in Marathon Wednesday Session

The Senate spent Wednesday working through a packed floor schedule, moving on the government's funding deadline while confirming one of the administration's most closely watched health nominees.

Lawmakers took up H.R. 6500, the legislative vehicle for a continuing resolution to keep the government funded, agreeing by voice vote to proceed with the bill after Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture on a Collins substitute amendment. The floor debate turned contentious at points, with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer using his remarks to weigh in not just on the funding fight but on the economy, Iran, and the pending Attorney General nomination, while Senator Barrasso spoke in defense of the administration's picks.

The day's biggest news came at 12:37 p.m., when the Senate voted 51-43 to invoke cloture on Dr. Erica Schwartz's nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clearing the way for her confirmation later that afternoon by a final vote of 51-44 — almost entirely along party lines, with Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) again the lone Democrat in support. Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general and retired U.S. Coast Guard officer, becomes the first Black woman to lead the CDC and the agency's first Senate-confirmed director in nearly a year, following the abrupt firing of her predecessor, Susan Monarez, over a dispute with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Schwartz takes over an agency that has lost thousands of employees since 2025 and is currently managing an active measles outbreak and the largest cyclosporiasis outbreak in U.S. history. Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) ultimately backed her after initial hesitation, while Sen. Bernie Sanders voted against her both in committee and on the floor, citing unresolved doubts about her willingness to push back against Kennedy's policies.

Meanwhile, Todd Blanche's nomination to be Attorney General continued moving through the chamber after recently clearing a key committee hurdle by winning over Republican holdouts, though it remained a flashpoint of floor debate throughout the day, with senators on both sides using the nomination to air broader grievances.

Wednesday's session capped with a 50-44 cloture vote on a separate batch of en bloc nominations, underscoring just how much of the Senate's floor time continues to be consumed by staffing out the administration's remaining leadership vacancies even as the funding deadline looms.