Senate panel backs Kennedy’s nomination as health secretary

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 supporting 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 his past comments questioning the safety of vaccines and refusal to accept science that shows that childhood immunizations don’t cause autism.

Kennedy did not attend Tuesday’s hearing.

Kennedy, 71, is the son of former U.S. Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of former President John F. 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.

His candidacy and his nomination 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 John F. 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.

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.