California, Oregon and Washington are forming an alliance to coordinate public health guidelines in an attempt to fill the role that federal agencies have held for decades.

The governors of the three states issued a joint statement Wednesday announcing the West Coast Health Alliance, which will coordinate public health guidelines and align immunization recommendations informed by “national medical organizations.” The group will finalize its “shared principles,” in the coming weeks.

The announcement comes amid turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency responsible for providing recommendations to the public about when and how to use approved or authorized vaccines. There are also questions about the future of federal officials’ role in vetting the safety and efficacy of common immunizations.

“President Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists — and his blatant politicization of the agency — is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people,” Govs. Gavin Newsom of California (D), Tina Kotek (D) of Oregon and Bob Ferguson (D) of Washington said in a joint statement.

“The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”

The move parallels a development in the Northeast, where public health leaders from eight states met recently to discuss forming their own consortium that could issue its own vaccine guidelines independent of the federal government.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime vaccine skeptic, has pressed the CDC to follow recommendations that are expected as soon as this month from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The 17-member federal panel, which guides national vaccine schedules and insurance coverage rules, was replaced in June with Kennedy’s hand-picked appointees.

Kennedy has said that he wants to weed out corruption and restore trust and transparency to the organization.