Senate panel vote clears the way for Kennedy to become health secretary
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- On a party-line vote of 14 to 13, the panel sent Kennedy’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote.
- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he looked forward to seeing Kennedy take on populist issues, such as reigning in high drug prices.
- Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said, “He’s unqualified, and I dare say everybody here knows it.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to lead the sprawling federal bureaucracy responsible for the healthcare of millions of Americans, received the backing of a key Senate committee on Tuesday despite his history of denying the science supporting vaccinations and support of disproved medical conspiracy theories.
GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician who has vocally struggled with whether to support Kennedy, ultimately voted in line with his party in the face of fierce pressure from fellow Republicans to support the nominee, including threats of a primary challenge in 2026.
Kennedy’s nomination moved forward on a party-line vote of 14 to 13 in the Senate Finance Committee.
All eyes were on Cassidy, a member of the committee who also chairs another Senate committee in which he told Kennedy on Thursday that he had “been struggling with your nomination” because of Kennedy’s past comments questioning the safety of vaccines and refusal to accept science that shows that childhood immunizations don’t cause autism.
Trump raised the issue of autism shortly before the hearing began.
“20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34. WOW! Something’s really wrong. We need BOBBY!!! Thank You! DJT,” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
Cassidy announced his intention to support Kennedy’s nomination on social media just before the committee voted.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy wrote on X. “With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.”
Cassidy did not speak during the hearing, but another Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said he looked forward to seeing Kennedy take on populist issues, such as reining in rising drug prices and promoting food safety. But Tillis warned that he would be keeping an eye on Kennedy’s handling of vaccines.
“The only way that Bobby Kennedy and I will get crosswise is if he does actually take a position against the safety of proven vaccines,” Tillis said. “That would be a problem for me.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has big plans for the FDA if he’s confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf explains why certain changes may not be that easy — or desirable.
Kennedy did not attend Tuesday’s hearing. A date for the Senate to vote on his nomination has not been set, but it could occur next week.
Kennedy, 71, is the son of former U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of former President Kennedy. The Brentwood resident, who is married to actor Cheryl Hines, was a Democrat for decades before he unsuccessfully ran for president as an independent in 2024. After he dropped out of the race in August, Kennedy endorsed Trump, a man he had previously labeled a likely “sociopath.”
After winning the November election, Trump nominated Kennedy to be his secretary of Health and Human Services, leading a department with a $1.8-billion budget and 90,000 employees. Among the agencies and programs that fall under the department’s purview are the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health as well as Medicaid and Medicare.
Public health groups and medical officials have assailed the prospect of putting a self-described “poster child for the anti-vax movement” in charge of the nation’s premier health and medical research agencies.
The anti-vaccine activist could oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
His candidacy and his nomination also faced notable opposition from several of his relatives, most recently his cousin Caroline Kennedy, who sent senators a scathing letter on the eve of his first nomination hearing last week — the first time she had spoken out publicly about his politics.
The sole surviving child of President Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy served as an ambassador in two Democratic administrations. In the letter, first reported by the Washington Post, she warned that her cousin was a “predator” whose views on vaccinations were disqualifying, and that he would continue to profit off a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company Merck about a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer.
“He is willing to enrich himself by denying access to a vaccine that can prevent almost all forms of cervical cancer and which has been safely administered to millions of boys and girls,” Caroline Kennedy wrote.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) alluded to those lawsuits Tuesday when she reiterated her concerns about Kennedy’s possible financial conflicts of interest. She said concessions he made to address such concerns — such as agreeing to hand off his financial interest in certain lawsuits against vaccine makers to his son — did not go far enough.
“He has figured out how to make money off his anti-vax positions,” Warren said. “He is in a position where he can affect the outcomes by things he does as secretary of HHS, and yet he refuses to say that he will delay by even a day taking on anti-vax lawsuits the minute he leaves.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock, a fellow Democrat from Georgia, expressed particular concern for the fate of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I simply do not trust him to oversee the CDC,” Warnock said. “He’s unqualified, and I dare say everybody here knows it.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced aggressive questions about his skepticism of vaccines and other issues during the first of two scheduled Senate confirmation hearings.
In two days of Senate hearings last week, Kennedy, who pledged to “make America healthy again,” faced aggressive questions about his past vocal skepticism of vaccines, embrace of debunked medical claims, financial conflicts of interest and political pirouetting on issues such as abortion rights.
Kennedy, a once-lauded environmental attorney, framed the attacks against him as the result of his willingness to ask hard questions of entrenched, powerful interests such as pharmaceutical companies.
He sought to highlight healthcare issues where there is broad bipartisan agreement, such as nutrition and substance abuse.
But Kennedy frequently contradicted his past positions, saying he was pro-vaccine despite a well-documented history of questioning their safety, including serving for several years as the chair of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that falsely claims childhood vaccines cause autism. He also stumbled while answering questions about the health programs he would lead if he is confirmed.
Dr. Joseph Varon, president of the Independent Medical Alliance, hailed the committee’s support for Kennedy and said he was looking forward to the full Senate’s vote next week.
“Americans demand a frank conversation about the state of our government healthcare agencies,” the Kennedy ally and COVID-19 vaccine critic said in a statement.
The organization said its advocacy arm, IMA Action, reached out to more than 100,000 Kennedy supporters in Louisiana over the weekend and helped them make their views known to Cassidy.
A sensational and troubled past often dogged Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential run, but didn’t prevent him from landing a Cabinet appointment from his new ally, President-elect Donald Trump.
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