Former C.D.C. Director to Tell Lawmakers She Was ‘Fired for Holding the Line’

Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is set to tell a Senate panel on Wednesday that she was fired “for holding the line on scientific integrity.”

Dr. Monarez will make her first detailed account of her ouster last month by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in prepared testimony obtained by The New York Times. In her comments, she will say she informed the health secretary that “if he believed he could not trust me, he could fire me.”

The hearing is also set to feature Dr. Debra Houry, the C.D.C.’s former chief medical officer and one of three leaders who recently quit the agency in frustration. She will tell lawmakers that Mr. Kennedy had “repeatedly censored” science and “politicized our processes," according to her testimony.

The hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Health Committee will give Dr. Monarez an opportunity to tell her story publicly and answer questions. It will also put a spotlight on Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and the committee’s chairman, whose vote paved the way for Mr. Kennedy’s confirmation in February. Mr. Cassidy, who is also a physician, has been increasingly critical of Mr. Kennedy on vaccines.

Shortly after the White House fired Dr. Monarez, she wrote an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal saying that Mr. Kennedy had “pressured me to resign or face termination.”

She elaborated in her prepared remarks that Mr. Kennedy had given a choice: fire top C.D.C. officials responsible for vaccine policy and accept the recommendations of his handpicked advisers, or resign. Dr. Monarez told him to fire her after he said he could not trust her, she wrote.

Mr. Kennedy has offered a conflicting account, saying he pushed her out because she responded “no” when he asked whether she was a “trustworthy person.”

Andrew G. Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an emailed statement on Tuesday that Dr. Monarez’s remarks were factually inaccurate and omitted details.

“Susan Monarez was tasked with returning the C.D.C. to its core mission after decades of bureaucratic inertia, politicized science and mission creep corroded its purpose and squandered public trust,” he said. “Instead, she acted maliciously to undermine the president’s agenda and was fired as a result.”

The removal of Dr. Monarez less than a month after she was confirmed by the Senate stunned public health leaders and people in Washington. President Trump and Mr. Kennedy had both vouched for her, with the health secretary saying she had “impeccable scientific credentials.”

According to Dr. Monarez, their relationship began to sour early last month, amid a dispute over the C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Vaccine Practices, which Mr. Kennedy has reconstituted since he fired all 17 of its members in June.

On Aug. 2, she said, she learned from news reports that experts serving as liaisons to the panel — including those from major medical societies — had been removed from its working groups. Then she heard concerns that the panel might alter the childhood vaccine schedule at its upcoming meeting, this Thursday and Friday, “potentially without credible supporting data.”

On Aug. 19, less than two weeks after a gunman opened fire on the C.D.C. headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer, Dr. Monarez said she “received a directive” from Mr. Kennedy’s office instructing her that she needed approval from the president’s political appointees before making policy and personnel decisions.

Two days later, she was told to return to Washington from Atlanta immediately, which would have meant missing the police officer’s memorial — “something I was not willing to do,” she said.

On the morning of Aug. 25, back in Washington, Dr. Monarez said, Mr. Kennedy demanded that she commit in advance to approving every recommendation by the advisory panel “regardless of the scientific evidence.” He also directed her to “dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause,” she said.

Mr. Kennedy told her that “he had already spoken with the White House several times” about removing her. Two days later, the White House announced it had fired Dr. Monarez.

Her lawyers insisted at first that the firing was illegal, arguing that only Mr. Trump, who appointed Dr. Monarez, had the authority to remove her. The White House eventually announced that she was fired, and Mr. Kennedy installed his chief deputy, Jim O’Neill, as the acting C.D.C. director. Mr. Trump has never spoken publicly about the move.

Dr. Houry, the former chief medical officer who will also testify on Wednesday, served with C.D.C. directors in four administrations, including during Mr. Trump’s first term. She will say in her testimony that she was honored to serve as the transition lead for the second Trump administration.

“We proposed public health solutions to support the administration’s priorities related to addressing chronic disease, expanding public-private sector partnerships and enhancing data transparency,” she wrote in her prepared remarks, adding, “That all changed when Mr. Kennedy was sworn in.”

The secretary had “significantly weakened and undermined” the C.D.C.’s ability to protect the health of Americans, she wrote. “I resigned because Secretary Kennedy’s actions repeatedly censored C.D.C. science, politicized our processes and stripped agency leaders of the ability to protect the health of the American people,” Dr. Houry continued.

Mr. Nixon disputed her account, saying that Mr. Kennedy “has insisted that decisions be evidence-based, open to scrutiny and free from the kind of closed-door processes that undermined confidence in the C.D.C. during the pandemic.”

Dr. Monarez and senior C.D.C. leaders, Dr. Houry wrote, “were no longer permitted to rely on their expertise — they were expected to serve as rubber stamps for the secretary’s decisions. I could not, in good conscience, remain under those conditions.”