Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clears Senate Committee, heads to full vote For HHS
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was endorsed by the Senate Finance Committee after two tough hearings. His nomination will now advance to a full Senate vote.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to head the US Department of Health and Human Services, was endorsed by the Senate Finance Committee after two tough hearings. His nomination will now advance to a full Senate vote.
The committee voted along party lines Tuesday, with 14 Republicans voting to advance Kennedy in front of the Senate and 13 Democrats voting against.
Though Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had said he was “struggling” with his vote over Kennedy’s past vaccine denials, he ended up agreeing to send it to the full Senate. He then released a statement saying that he will also vote to confirm Kennedy on the Senate floor.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy, a medical doctor, said. “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 was under intense pressure from fellow Republicans and clean-food activists to vote for Kennedy.
“RFK is going to run HHS whether you like it or not,” Louisiana Representative Clay Higgins posted on X Jan. 30. “So, vote your conscience Senator, or don’t. Either way, We’re watching.”
And Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again coalition, including Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was his vice presidential pick during his run for president, posted a video on X, encouraging people to call their Senators to vote for Kennedy.
“I will make it my personal mission that you lose your seats in the Senate if you vote against the future health of America’s children,” she said in the video.
If confirmed by the full Senate for the nation’s top health role, Kennedy could overhaul some of the nation’s public health policies. Kennedy would have control over the Food and Drug Administration, which approves medical treatments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes vaccine and public health recommendations.
HHS also accounts for about a quarter of the federal budget through its control over federal insurance programs for elderly and low-income Americans.
So far, only one of Trump’s cabinet nominees has faced close votes on the Senate floor. On Jan. 24, Vice President JD Vance had to cast a tiebreaking vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary after three Republicans — Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — voted against the confirmation.
McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, warned Kennedy in December to not “undermine the public confidence in proven cures.”
Heated Hearings
Kennedy had faced tough questions at the first of his two Senate hearings before the Finance Committee, which was often interrupted by protesters.
While Kennedy said he would not stop anyone from getting the polio and measles vaccines, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said Kennedy’s spread of misinformation about vaccines in Samoa “contributed to the deaths of 83 children” from measles in 2018-2019. Kennedy said he never made a statement about vaccines while in Samoa.
Kennedy, who had supported abortion rights while running as a Democrat and a third-party presidential candidate, also promised in his Senate hearings to back the Trump administration’s positions on abortion and defer to the White House.
