RFK Jr. closes in on HHS Cabinet post after Senate panel vote

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is now one step closer to running the nation’s health agencies after a Senate panel voted narrowly Tuesday to advance the nomination of President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The longtime anti-vaccine activist – who has been widely opposed by public health experts and Democrats – could soon be confirmed for a sweeping post to oversee Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act; coordinating the public health response to epidemics; and the process of approving pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines and other medical supplies. Kennedy and his supporters insist he would bring an overdue focus to problems such as chronic disease through his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
The Senate Finance panel vote Tuesday morning fell along party lines, with the panel’s 14 Republicans voting to confirm Kennedy and its 13 Democrats opposed. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), a physician who had been openly wrestling with whether to support one of the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptics, opted to vote for Kennedy in a decision that could foreshadow the upcoming vote in front of the Senate.
Kennedy denied that he was anti-vaccine in his two confirmation hearings last week, insisting he simply seeks more data about vaccines’ risks – something he has said for years when pressed on his debunked claims, lawmakers pointed out.
His nomination now will advance to a vote before the full Senate, which has not yet been announced but is expected to be scheduled for next week. If Democrats unite in opposing Kennedy, he can afford only three GOP defections. While Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) are seen as potential swing votes, it is not clear whether Kennedy’s critics can muster enough resistance to stop him.
Kennedy’s confirmation as the nation’s health secretary would cap a dizzying six-month political sprint that saw him end his long-shot presidential campaign, endorse Trump and quickly win over Republicans wary of a scion of the most famous family in Democratic politics.
His nomination has sparked an intense lobbying campaign that has drawn in politicians – such as former Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green , who have warned that Kennedy is unfit – along with MAHA supporters, health care workers and other Americans who have traveled to the Capitol to personally sway lawmakers.
GOP senators Tuesday cheered Kennedy, calling him a reformer who is not beholden to health care special interests.
“If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed, we’ll have the opportunity to deliver much-needed change to our nation’s health care system,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the Finance Committee chairman.
Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine activist who was among several longtime Kennedy allies who attended the vote, told the Washington Post that “there is no one better for this job.”
“We need a disrupter,” he said.
Democrats agreed that America’s health care system needs changes but insisted that Kennedy could not be trusted to carry them out. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden , the panel’s top Democrat, warned other senators that their legacy would now include elevating “conspiracy theorists.”
Wyden also cited the Post’s examination of Kennedy’s past statements, pointing to more than 100 appearances in which Kennedy had disparaged vaccines.
“This is not over yet,” Wyden told reporters after the vote, vowing to “pull out all the stops” on the Senate floor. But despite Wyden’s pledge, Democrats have not had the power to stop Trump’s most controversial nominees from being confirmed.
Some public health leaders held out hope that Kennedy could still be defeated.
“It is not too late to say no,” said Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cassidy had joined Democrats in grilling Kennedy in last week’s hearings, urging Kennedy to abandon his debunked claim that vaccines cause autism, saying he feared it would further undermine Americans’ confidence in the safety of vaccinations. Cassidy was lobbied heavily by public health leaders, fellow Republicans and Kennedy supporters for weeks, all seeking to sway one of the few GOP senators who appeared to be on the fence.
But moments before Cassidy cast his vote, he wrote on social media that he had received “serious commitments” from the Trump administration to make progress on issues such as improving the nation’s food supply.
Other Republicans have signaled their own concerns about Kennedy, including McConnell. The former Republican leader was stricken with polio when he was 2 – a bout with the sometimes deadly disease that has informed his ardent support for vaccines – and delivered a public warning that he would not support nominees who question “proven cures.”
Murkowski told reporters last week that she planned to review the responses Kennedy gave to senators on whether vaccines cause autism.
Collins asked Kennedy whether he believed the polio vaccine was safe and effective, to which he responded “yes.” He said he would not seek to reduce the availability of the vaccine.
High-pressure lobbying
Tuesday’s vote had been seen as a coin flip, given Cassidy’s wavering – and the intense efforts to win over him and other lawmakers.
MAHA supporters fanned out across the Capitol, buttonholing senators and insisting that Kennedy, a former liberal nominated by Trump, was the only person who could unite Americans on health care issues. Zen Honeycutt, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Moms Across America, said she went to 77 senators’ offices before Kennedy’s confirmation hearings to get her message out: that Kennedy is focused on making food and vaccines safe, and he has catalyzed a movement.
Nicole Shanahan, who was Kennedy’s running mate during his failed presidential campaign last year and reportedly has a personal fortune that exceeds $1 billion, vowed last week to fund challengers to senators who refused to vote for Kennedy.
The pro-Kennedy forces were countered by a wave of anti-Kennedy protests, including physicians in white coats wearing buttons emblazoned with messages such as “Stop RFK Jr.,” who focused on Kennedy’s history of raising doubts about vaccines. Democratic-aligned groups ran ad campaigns that attempted to tie Kennedy’s visit to Samoa with the island nation’s subsequent measles outbreak, a connection that Kennedy has denied.
Asked by Wyden in written questions whether he believed people should receive the polio vaccine – which has been administered for 70 years and credited with eliminating the risk of the disease in the United States – Kennedy wrote that “Americans should make their own decisions about their health.”
Much of the pressure landed on Cassidy, who is viewed as politically endangered after voting to convict Trump on an impeachment charge in 2021 and had refused to divulge his decision.
As two dozen other senators filed in and the 10 a.m. hearing got underway, Cassidy’s seat sat empty before he finally entered with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, more than 12 minutes after the hour. He sat as Wyden excoriated Kennedy and repeatedly huddled with his staff before tersely voting yes.
On the Senate floor later, Cassidy rattled off commitments that he had received to support Kennedy, such as a pledge to consult on HHS hiring decisions and a 30-day warning on potential changes to federal vaccine safety monitoring programs. Cassidy also said he believed Kennedy could restore flagging trust in America’s public health agencies.
Longtime watchers of HHS said they were skeptical of Kennedy’s commitments, noting that the Senate has a central check on a Cabinet secretary – the power to block his nomination – that the senator from Louisiana just waived.
“Is (Kennedy) going to pick up the phone and call on the senator every time he’s about to make a controversial decision? I don’t think so,” said Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.