President Trump nominated Timothy Westlake to lead the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The details: Westlake is an emergency medicine physician and current SAMHSA chief of staff.

• He is a former chair of the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board and previously served on the Wisconsin Controlled Substances Board and on then-Governor Walker’s Task Force on Opioid Abuse. He was a lead advocate in the push for broader scheduling of fentanyl.

The bigger picture: The agency has operated without a permanent leader for over a year. Westlake would be taking over an agency the administration has upended. SAMHSA employees have praised Westlake.

What’s next: The Senate will schedule confirmation hearings for Westlake.

Meanwhile: Dr. Erica Schwartz, Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee last week for a confirmation hearing.

• Reminder: Schwartz is a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, with degrees in medicine, law, and public health. She previously served as chief medical officer of the U.S. Coast Guard and as deputy surgeon general in the first Trump administration. If confirmed, she would also be leading an agency that has been upended and without a full-time director.
• Schwartz repeatedly demurred on questions on how she would deal with interference from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kennedy. When asked if she would report to Congress if someone from the administration told her to implement policies that were unscientific or could harm the public, Schwartz said, “I do not believe the president or the secretary would ask me to do something like that.”
• What’s next: The Senate HELP Committee will vote on whether to advance Schwartz’s nomination this week.