The GOP-controlled Senate voted Thursday to substantiate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, to guide the nation’s strongest well being care company.
Kennedy was confirmed as well being and human companies secretary on a largely party-line vote of 52-48. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., broke ranks on one more of President Donald Trump’s Cupboard nominees, becoming a member of all Democrats in opposition.
McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, stated Kennedy had a “report of trafficking in harmful conspiracy theories and eroding belief in public well being establishments.”
“Mr. Kennedy did not show he’s the absolute best particular person to guide America’s largest well being company,” McConnell stated in a press release. “As he takes workplace, I sincerely hope Mr. Kennedy will select to not sow additional doubt and division however to revive belief in our public well being establishments.”
Nonetheless, Thursday’s vote marks one other win for Trump, all of whose Cupboard-level nominees who’ve come earlier than the Senate have been authorized.
Kennedy will now be in control of an expansive, $1.7 trillion company that steers pandemic preparedness, manages government-funded well being look after tens of millions of individuals and oversees vaccine and pharmaceutical drug improvement.
Kennedy, a scion of the well-known Democratic household, managed to beat considerations amongst some Republicans over his previous stances on vaccines and abortion.
The Republican senator who most vocally questioned Kennedy’s {qualifications}, Invoice Cassidy, of Louisiana, finally voted to substantiate him. Cassidy, a longtime doctor who chairs the Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee, had stated he was “struggling” together with his resolution after he quizzed Kennedy at two affirmation hearings.
However Cassidy, who’s already politically susceptible ought to he run for re-election, stated in a flooring speech final week that Kennedy gave him a sequence of reassurances that he would keep the Heart for Illness Management and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices and that he wouldn’t take away statements on the CDC’s web site noting that vaccines don’t trigger autism.
Kennedy additionally secured the backing of two different key Republicans, Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Susan Collins, of Maine, earlier than the vote.
Murkowski introduced her assist after, she stated, Kennedy reassured her about his stance on vaccines.
“He has made quite a few commitments to me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to make sure public entry to info and to base vaccine suggestions on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound analysis,” Murkowski wrote on X on Wednesday. “These commitments are vital to me and, on stability, present assurance for my vote.”
Collins supplied an identical assertion this week, saying Kennedy had allayed her considerations about his stances on vaccines.
Along with the CDC, the HHS secretary oversees the heads of the Meals and Drug Administration, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers.
Kennedy initially ran for president final 12 months as a Democrat earlier than he launched an unbiased marketing campaign. He finally dropped his bid and endorsed Trump, taking his “Make America Wholesome Once more” message onto the marketing campaign path.
Kennedy’s name to extra carefully look at chemical compounds within the nation’s meals introduced assist from each events. However his previous activism towards vaccines and his development of false theories that they’re linked to autism prevented him from profitable any Democratic assist.
“Whenever you proceed to sow doubt about settled science, it makes it not possible for us to maneuver ahead,” Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., advised Kennedy in an emotional assertion at a committee listening to final month. “So that is what the issue is right here, is the relitigating and the rehashing and the persevering with to sow doubt so we will not transfer ahead. And it freezes us in place.”