Senate committee moves forward with RFK Jr.’s health secretary nomination

Senate committee moves forward with RFK Jr.’s health secretary nomination

NBC NEWS

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cleared a key hurdle Tuesday after a Senate panel voted to advance his nomination to be health and human services secretary to the full chamber.

In a 14-13 vote along party lines, the Senate Finance Committee pushed through Kennedy’s nomination after he managed to allay concerns raised by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.

Cassidy, a doctor, was the one potential swing vote on the panel. Last week, he signaled that he held serious reservations over whether Kennedy was qualified to lead the vast agency, saying he was “struggling” with his decision after questioning him at two confirmation hearings. In addition to the Finance Committee, Cassidy serves as chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

In a statement posted on X before Tuesday’s vote, Cassidy said he had “very intense conversations” with Kennedy and the White House over the weekend, specifically thanking Vice President JD Vance “for his honest counsel.”

“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 said.

Cassidy had said he needed to hear an unequivocal statement from Kennedy that vaccines do not cause autism and indicate he would listen to well-established science on the matter. It was unclear whether Kennedy had made that assertion.

A scion of the storied Democratic family, Kennedy ran for president in 2024, first as a Democrat and then as an independent, before dropping out to endorse Trump. While hitting the trail for Trump, Kennedy branded a “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, in which he railed against food manufacturers and unhealthy ingredients in the nation’s diet.

While some senators in both parties expressed support for making food products safer, two days of questioning last week revealed other significant objections to Kennedy.

Kennedy tripped up in answering basic questions about Medicaid, an area that constitutes a major part of the job of health secretary. Democratic senators objected to what they called significant conflicts of interest should he be confirmed, including that he could indirectly financially benefit from pending litigation against a vaccine maker that he would regulate as HHS secretary.

But among the most vociferous objections to Kennedy are related to his repeated denials of the efficacy of vaccines. In one committee hearing last week, Cassidy repeatedly took Kennedy to task for his refusal to embrace science that shows vaccines do not cause autism.

“I can say that I’ve approached it using the preponderance of evidence to reassure and you’ve approached using selected evidence to cast doubt,” Cassidy said last week.

Cassidy is up for re-election in 2026. He has already drawn a GOP primary challenger over his vote to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial.

Minutes before the committee’s vote, Trump attempted to provide a boost to Kennedy on Truth Social.

“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.”

Autism diagnoses have risen from about 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 currently, though researchers have pointed to increased screening and changing definitions of the condition as the basis for that rise.

In hundreds of studies over decades and across the world, scientists have debunked the false link between vaccines and autism. Autism advocates expressed concern over Kennedy’s confirmation, fearing his false assertions tying the complex neurological and developmental condition to vaccines would set back decades of progress. They say that the repeated emphasis on false theories has diverted precious research needed to expand on true causation.

That autism to vaccine link had been at least part of the reservations Cassidy held over Kennedy’s confirmation…

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Senate committee moves forward with RFK Jr.'s health secretary nomination

 

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