The United States has not had a confirmed surgeon general at any point in Trump's second term. Two nominees went down. A third was named in April.
So in May, the administration stopped waiting. On May 20, 2026, The Hill reported that the Department of Health and Human Services had handed many of the surgeon general's duties to a staffer already inside the office — Stephanie Haridopolos, the wife of Rep. Mike Haridopolos of Florida.
An HHS spokesperson explained the mechanics:
"Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brian Christine, M.D. is using his delegation of authority powers to allow Dr. Haridopolos to begin carrying out many of the duties of the Surgeon General on behalf of the American people. She will promote OSG public health actions, advisories, and guidance until the next Surgeon General is sworn into office."
Bloomberg reported it first, based on an email HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent to staff.
Let's be careful and fair here. Stephanie Haridopolos is a family physician with a real résumé. She is the chief of staff, senior adviser and director of national communications at the Office of the Surgeon General, and she led an effort in Florida to expand eligibility for subsidized children's coverage under Florida KidCare. None of what follows is about her qualifications.
It's about what this arrangement means, and about the congressman on the other end of it.
The Senate said no twice. This is how you get around that.
The surgeon general is a Senate-confirmed position. That's the point of it. The nation's doctor issues advisories that carry weight precisely because someone outside the White House signed off on the person issuing them.
Trump's first two picks — Janette Nesheiwat and Casey Means — failed to advance. Means's nomination was withdrawn last month, and former Fox News contributor and radiologist Nicole Saphier was named instead.
Rather than wait for a confirmation vote, the administration used a delegation of authority to have the office's chief of staff perform the job's duties. The public health advisories keep coming. The Senate vote never happens.
That should bother people regardless of party. And it should bother us more that the person now carrying out those duties is married to a sitting member of the House majority — a member whose votes help determine what HHS gets funded to do.
The Hill asked Rep. Haridopolos's office for comment on his wife's new role. The story records no answer.
What the congressman has been doing about health care
Mike Haridopolos does not sit on a health committee. He sits on Financial Services and chairs the Science Committee's space panel. But he votes on the House floor like everyone else, and on health care his record is unambiguous.
On December 17, 2025, Haridopolos voted for H.R. 6703, Roll Call 349 — the bill Republicans passed after the Senate had already blocked an extension of the tax credits that keep marketplace insurance affordable. H.R. 6703 loosens rules on stripped-down "association health plans." It does not stop the price increase. We went through the whole maneuver here: 197 Republicans voted to spike your health insurance premiums, and he is on that list.
Florida is not a bystander in this. An estimated 990,000 Floridians will lose Medicaid coverage under Trump's budget law — a number that climbs to 1.5 million once the marketplace subsidy cuts are counted. Florida's uninsured rate is projected to go from a historic low of 10.7% back up to 16.7%.
That's roughly one in six Floridians without coverage, in the state whose congressman's family now helps run federal public health messaging.
"He actually did it"
Here's what Haridopolos was saying about the administration's health record while all of this was going on.
In an interview published April 28, 2026, he praised TrumpRx, the administration's drug pricing effort:
"It's a huge play, everyone talked about reducing prescription drug costs, and he actually did it."
"It's about time we stop subsidizing the rest of the world. I'm so pleased by this direction, and it's one of the ways that we can bring down costs for everyday Americans."
A congressman with no health committee assignment, whose wife works at the top of HHS's surgeon general office, going on the record as a booster for the administration's health agenda — three weeks before that same department handed his wife the surgeon general's duties.
We are not claiming a deal. We're pointing at the structure. When a member of Congress's household income and career advancement run through an executive agency, his incentive to ask that agency hard questions goes to zero. And the questions are piling up: 1.5 million Floridians losing coverage, premiums climbing, an office of the surgeon general with no confirmed occupant and no plan to get one.
What accountability would look like
None of this requires anyone to resign. It requires the congressman to answer three questions his constituents are entitled to ask:
- Does he believe the surgeon general's duties should be performed by someone the Senate has never confirmed?
- Will he recuse himself from votes and oversight touching the Office of the Surgeon General?
- What is he doing for the 1.5 million Floridians his budget votes are pushing off health coverage?
Constituents can't easily ask him, either. Every town hall Haridopolos has held has been a telephone town hall — from his first in February 2025 through his sixth in June 2026. You dial in, you submit a question, and you hope it gets picked.
We deserve better.
Source
Joseph Choi, "GOP House rep's wife to perform duties of U.S. surgeon general," The Hill, May 20, 2026. Photo: official congressional portrait.
