Heidi Overton faces Senate scrutiny as Trump nominee for FDA chief

Heidi Overton is scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at 10:30 a.m. for a hearing on her nomination as FDA commissioner, a role she would assume at age 37, making her the youngest ever. A preventive-medicine doctor with experience in both Trump administrations, Overton would inherit an agency still recovering from a 2025 workforce reduction that cut staff by nearly 20 percent.

Critics, including Senator Bill Cassidy, are questioning her lack of senior management experience and her support for policies advocated by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., such as efforts to roll back the childhood vaccine schedule. The hearing is expected to probe how she would restore the agency’s scientific staff and navigate the politicized environment that has marked the FDA’s recent history.