Senate Postpones Means' Surgeon General Hearing

Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Surgeon General, went into labor the morning of her scheduled Senate HELP Committee confirmation hearing, forcing the planned virtual session to be postponed indefinitely and prolonging the vacancy for the nation’s top public-health post. Means, a Stanford-trained physician-turned-wellness influencer and author aligned with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, left surgical residency in 2018 and holds an inactive medical license—details that had been expected to prompt tough questioning about her views on vaccines, contraception and other mainstream medical practices. Her nomination followed the White House’s withdrawal of initial pick Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, and the HELP committee has not yet set a new hearing date. Separately, ahead of UN climate talks in Brazil next month, former EPA chief Gina McCarthy said U.S. cities and states are keeping climate action alive despite the Trump administration’s rollbacks. The America Is All In coalition is sending more than 100 subnational leaders to COP30 and released a study with the University of Maryland’s Center for Global Sustainability finding that aggressive state and city action—especially in power, transport and methane reductions—can deliver significant greenhouse gas cuts by 2035. Some lawmakers urged legal resistance to federal obstruction of climate policies.