Senate committee advances Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination as health secretary
His nomination will now face a full Senate vote, despite concerns about the work he has done to sow doubts about vaccine safety.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the controversial environmental lawyer turned public health critic, cleared his first hurdle on Tuesday to become the US’s top health official, when the Senate finance committee voted to advance his nomination for a floor vote.
Republicans voted together to advance his nomination, while Democrats all opposed.
His nomination will now face a full Senate vote, despite concerns about the work he has done to sow doubts about vaccine safety and his potential to profit from lawsuits over drugmakers.
To gain control of the Health and Human Services agency, Mr Kennedy will need support from all but three Republicans if Democrats uniformly oppose him.
Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is also a physician and sits on the finance committee, voted to advance his confirmation.
Last week, during Mr Kennedy’s hearings, Mr Cassidy repeatedly implored Mr Kennedy to reject a disproven theory that vaccines cause autism, to no avail.
He ended the hearing by saying he was “struggling” with the vote.
“Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Mr Cassidy told Mr Kennedy.
Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are all seen as potential no votes, too, because they voted against President Donald Trump’s defence secretary nominee and have expressed concerns about Mr Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work.
Democrats, meanwhile, continue to raise alarms about Mr Kennedy’s potential to financially benefit from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine-makers, if confirmed as health secretary.
“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications, which you would be empowered to make and influence as secretary, could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter sent over the weekend to Mr Kennedy.
Mr Kennedy told the committee he has referred hundreds of clients to a law firm that is suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer.
He has earned 2.5 million dollars (£2 million) from the deal over the past three years.
As health secretary, Kennedy will oversee vaccine recommendations and public health campaigns for the agency, which is also responsible for food and hospital inspections, providing health insurance for millions of Americans and researching deadly diseases.
Mr Kennedy, a longtime Democrat, ran for president but withdrew last year to throw his support behind Mr Trump in exchange for an influential job in his Republican administration.
Together, they have forged a new and unusual coalition made up of conservatives who oppose vaccines and liberals who want to see the government promote healthier foods.
Mr Trump and Mr Kennedy have called the movement Make America Healthy Again.
