STAT+: FDA commissioner nominee Heidi Overton keeps opinions to herself in Senate hearing — SkimNews
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- Heidi Overton, a preventive medicine physician from rural New Mexico who served in the White House during both Trump terms, faced the Senate committee that will decide whether to advance her nomination to a full floor vote.
- Senators pressed Overton on hot-button issues including China, childhood vaccines, and the abortion drug mifepristone across the two-hour hearing.
- Overton repeatedly deferred to existing FDA guidance and approvals without saying whether she would endorse updating that guidance or altering approvals at the request of Trump or HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) observed mid-hearing that Overton had "done a pretty good job of avoiding answering questions so far."
Why it matters: Overton's refusal to stake out positions on vaccines, mifepristone, and China leaves senators evaluating a nominee whose stated record aligns with current FDA policy but who has not committed to resisting changes Trump or RFK Jr. might push for — effectively a blank check on the agency's direction under a health secretary who has publicly targeted both vaccine policy and abortion pill access.
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