Key Insights
- Democrats won majorities in the US House and Senate on Tuesday, which will allowing them to scrutinize and push back against the policies of the Donald J. Trump administration.
- Scientists would like Congress to prioritize funding public health and research agencies as well as bolster confidence in vaccines.
- Some lawmakers also want to hold individual members of the Trump administration accountable for spreading misinformation about vaccines and remove them from office.
The Nov. 3 US midterm elections decisively shifted the balance of power in Congress toward Democrats, granting them the authority to conduct hearings, launch investigations, and push back on President Donald J. Trump’s agenda. That shift will likely include more scrutiny of the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict health science funding and countering its moves to undermine vaccines.
The federal budget and personnel cuts over the past 2 years spurred a new wave of candidates with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics backgrounds to run for office. In particular, a record number of health professionals stood for election in the recent midterms—like Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who won a US Senate seat in South Carolina and Abdul El-Sayed, a public health official elected to the US Senate from Michigan.
