CDC left without director after White House misses key deadline

Jessica Nix and Rachel Cohrs Zhang, Bloomberg News on Mar 25, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected to miss a deadline to name a new director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving the public health agency without a leader and adding to its leadership turmoil.

The administration will not nominate a director Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House missed the 210-day window to submit a name to the Senate since the agency last had a permanent director.

In practice, the absence of an acting director likely will have a limited effect on the CDC’s day-to-day operations, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. Some of the director’s responsibilities can be delegated to other people, and some could be completed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The lack of leadership, however, is the latest sign of chaos at the agency that’s seen an exodus of top scientists and an influx of political leadership under Kennedy’s HHS. It’s also not the first time the agency hasn’t had a director in his tenure. During former director Susan Monarez’s nomination process, no one was named as an acting leader, leaving questions about who was calling the shots at the agency in charge of monitoring disease outbreaks.

“Secretary Kennedy and Chris Klomp are working with the White House on the CDC director search by evaluating candidates that can further the Trump administration’s objective of restoring the CDC to its original mission of fighting infectious disease,” said Rich Danker, HHS spokesperson.

Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya told staff at an all-hands meeting Wednesday he expected a nominee to be named by Thursday. However, if the White House missed the deadline, he would continue to serve “acting in the capacity of the director” and throughout the nomination process.

Bhattacharya, also the director of the National Institutes of Health, added that he intends to hire senior leaders to replace those who were fired or left in the last year, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by Bloomberg.

“Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s leadership at the CDC is a great service to the country and he has now been delegated to provide continuity in day-to-day CDC processes until the White House nominates a permanent CDC director in short order,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said.

The White House has been looking for a new director and already had a shortlist that included Ernie Fletcher, former governor of Kentucky and a physician, and Joseph Marine, a cardiologist who has criticized the agency’s handling of the COVID pandemic.

On March 19, HHS Chief Counselor Klomp said he was “optimistic” about the potential candidates for CDC director.

One responsibility that has been closely watched is the CDC director’s role in approving recommendations made by the department’s vaccine advisory panel. The committee has been embroiled in a tense legal battle over Kennedy’s overhaul that led to the cancellation of its most recent meeting and a reversal of their votes in the last year. Previously, the secretary had signed off on the recommendations without issue, Reiss said.

The lack of an established leader could impede interagency coordination, she said.

“An agency as troubled as CDC really needs a stabilizing hand to improve morale and help people in it function,” Reiss said. The Atlanta-based CDC has lost nearly a quarter of its career staff in the past year due to mass layoffs and people quitting the agency.

A Senate confirmation for a CDC director is a fairly novel process. After the pandemic, Congress voted to make the position Senate-confirmed to force federal oversight over the director picks. Monarez became the first director to secure confirmation.

The Trump administration originally tapped former Florida Congressman Dave Weldon in 2025, who was pulled shortly before his Senate hearing due to his more controversial vaccine opinions. Monarez was confirmed by the Senate in July, before she was fired a month later following a dispute with Kennedy over vaccines.

Then-deputy HHS Secretary Jim O’Neill led the agency in an acting capacity until his departure in February. Bhattacharya has been serving as the acting director since.