The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was scheduled to consider three Trump administration nominees on Wednesday: Nicole Saphier for surgeon general, Chris Klomp for deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Timothy Westlake for assistant secretary for mental health and substance use. A separate Senate Finance Committee hearing was scheduled to consider Klomp and HHS assistant secretary nominee Ge Bai, according to Holland & Knight’s congressional calendar: Holland & Knight.
Saphier’s nomination and vaccine record
Saphier is the third person Trump has put forward for surgeon general. The president withdrew Casey Means’ nomination after the committee failed to vote on it, following the earlier withdrawal of Janette Nesheiwat amid questions about her academic credentials, Houston Public Media reported. Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Monmouth facility in New Jersey and has worked as a Fox News contributor. She earned her medical degree from a Caribbean university, and the report noted that her background is clinical rather than centered on public health: Houston Public Media/NPR.
The issues identified in advance of the HELP Committee’s session included Saphier’s views on vaccination. She has questioned whether all newborns need a hepatitis B shot and opposed COVID-19 booster requirements. She has also criticized the Trump administration’s suggestion that pregnant women avoid Tylenol because of a possible autism connection, calling the idea oversimplistic and patronizing in comments reported by Houston Public Media. Saphier separately objected to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to hire David Geier to investigate autism trends, arguing that changes in diagnosis, treatment and prevention should be grounded in rigorous science. She made that argument in an opinion article, according to the report.
Kennedy endorsed Saphier in April and described her as a longtime supporter of the Make America Healthy Again movement. Saphier also wrote the 2020 book Make America Healthy Again. Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Houston Public Media that he expects her to win confirmation, although the supplied reporting does not establish the committee’s eventual action.
Klomp and Westlake face separate agency questions
Klomp has held several senior roles at HHS. He became director of the Center for Medicare in April 2025 and was elevated to chief counselor to Kennedy in February 2026. His nomination to become deputy secretary would place him in the department’s second-highest post. In related Senate questioning described by Houston Public Media, Democrats focused on the administration’s response to measles outbreaks, while Republicans raised drug prices and Medicaid fraud. Klomp has supported children receiving the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
Westlake, an emergency medicine physician in Wisconsin, serves as chief of staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and was nominated to lead its mental health and substance-use policy. The nomination comes as SAMHSA faces major staffing reductions. Kennedy’s restructuring proposal would have eliminated the agency, but legal challenges have put that plan on hold, according to Houston Public Media. The supplied materials do not show whether senators ultimately questioned Westlake about the restructuring or whether the committee voted on his nomination.
