Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s decide to go the US Division of Well being and Human Providers, was endorsed by the Senate Finance Committee after two powerful hearings. His nomination will now advance to a full Senate vote.
The committee voted alongside get together strains Tuesday, with 14 Republicans voting to advance Kennedy in entrance of the Senate and 13 Democrats voting in opposition to.
Although Republican Senator Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana, chair of the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee, had stated he was “struggling” along with his vote over Kennedy’s previous vaccine denials, he ended up agreeing to ship it to the complete Senate. He then launched an announcement saying that he may also vote to substantiate Kennedy on the Senate ground.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White Home over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy, a medical physician, stated. “With the intense commitments I’ve acquired from the administration and the chance to make progress on the problems we agree on like wholesome meals and a pro-American agenda, I’ll vote sure.”
Cassidy was below intense stress from fellow Republicans and clean-food activists to vote for Kennedy.
“RFK goes to run HHS whether or not you prefer it or not,” Louisiana Consultant Clay Higgins posted on X Jan. 30. “So, vote your conscience Senator, or don’t. Both means, We’re watching.”
And Kennedy’s Make America Wholesome Once more coalition, together with Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was his vice presidential decide throughout his run for president, posted a video on X, encouraging individuals to name their Senators to vote for Kennedy.
“I’ll make it my private mission that you just lose your seats within the Senate for those who vote in opposition to the long run well being of America’s kids,” she stated within the video.
If confirmed by the complete Senate for the nation’s prime well being function, Kennedy may overhaul a number of the nation’s public well being insurance policies. Kennedy would have management over the Meals and Drug Administration, which approves medical therapies, and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, which makes vaccine and public well being suggestions.
HHS additionally accounts for a few quarter of the federal finances by means of its management over federal insurance coverage packages for aged and low-income People.
Up to now, solely one in every of Trump’s cupboard nominees has confronted shut votes on the Senate ground. On Jan. 24, Vice President JD Vance needed to forged a tiebreaking vote to substantiate Pete Hegseth as Protection Secretary after three Republicans — Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — voted in opposition to the affirmation.
McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, warned Kennedy in December to not “undermine the general public confidence in confirmed cures.”
Heated Hearings
Kennedy had confronted powerful questions on the first of his two Senate hearings earlier than the Finance Committee, which was usually interrupted by protesters.
Whereas Kennedy stated he wouldn’t cease anybody from getting the polio and measles vaccines, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon stated Kennedy’s unfold of misinformation about vaccines in Samoa “contributed to the deaths of 83 kids” from measles in 2018-2019. Kennedy stated he by no means made an announcement about vaccines whereas in Samoa.
Kennedy, who had supported abortion rights whereas working as a Democrat and a third-party presidential candidate, additionally promised in his Senate hearings to again the Trump administration’s positions on abortion and defer to the White Home.
