Francis Collins may be just days away from officially being confirmed to lead the National Institutes of Health, according to Congressional staffers close to the issue.
A spokesperson for Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), who is ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, told __The Scientist__ that the committee OKed Collins's nomination without holding a confirmation hearing. The spokesperson, Craig Orfield, said that the committee performed all the typical vetting, including a criminal background check, a review of past professional history, a financial questionnaire, and a conflicts of interest probe. "Everything checked out to the committee's satisfaction," Orfield said. "If there was a problem of that nature, you can bet that we definitely would have had a confirmation hearing and those issues would have been brought up." Instead, the committee passed Collins's nomination onto the full Senate, and the body is...
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