The White House has withdrawn the nomination of David Weldon, a former Florida congressman, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Republican-controlled Senate health committee announced Thursday morning that it was canceling a planned hearing on Weldon’s nomination — less than an hour before it was scheduled to begin.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the White House pulled the nomination because it became clear Weldon did not have the votes for confirmation.
Weldon was considered to be closely aligned with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary who for years has been one of the nation’s leading anti-vaccine activists.
Weldon, 71, is an Army veteran and internal medicine doctor whose main claim to fame was representing a central Florida district in Congress from 1995 to 2009.
He was a leader of a Congressional push for research into autism’s causes, which began around 2000. But Weldon rejected studies that found no causal link between childhood vaccines and autism, and accused the CDC of short-circuiting research that might show otherwise.
Sen. Patty Murray, who is on the health committee, said she had serious concerns about Weldon after meeting with him.
