Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s controversial pick to head the federal Department of Health and Human Services, will appear Wednesday before a Senate panel that is crucial to advance his nomination.
Kennedy is due to appear first at the Senate Committee on Finance, the panel that will ultimately be the committee with the deciding vote on whether his nomination to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services advances to the full Senate. He must receive a majority of senators to be confirmed to head HHS, which encompasses America’s federal health agencies.
The committee’s jurisdiction largely focuses on the department’s mammoth Medicare and Medicaid health insurance programs for seniors and low-income Americans, which make up the largest share of mandatory spending in the federal budget.
He will head next to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, which is scheduled to question Kennedy on Thursday.
That committee’s focus includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, all agencies that would fall under Kennedy’s authority if he is confirmed to lead the department.
Trump’s picks to head all of those agencies will also need to face their own Senate confirmation hearings. While some have voiced different opinions from him in the past, Kennedy could have broad authority to override them as secretary.
What is RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda?
This week’s hearings will offer the first public window into Kennedy’s broad “Make America Healthy Again” agenda in many weeks, after Kennedy and other nominees retreated from public appearances and social media posts.
Advisers have been huddling with Kennedy for months behind closed doors, multiple advisers say, hashing out how and whether to implement dramatic changes he has sought to the federal government’s health bureaucracy.
Kennedy’s supporters say many of his stances, like questioning ultra-processed foods and the risks of synthetic food additives and dyes, have hit on broad appeal among both Republicans and some Democrats that could buoy his chances to clear the Senate.
Through the FDA, Kennedy would be able to exercise substantial authority on how foods are regulated, labeled and recommended by the federal government.
But Kennedy is also facing criticism from both sides of the aisle, setting up a confirmation battle that multiple allies say he has privately acknowledged will be an uphill fight.
His aides are facing mounting criticism over a department-wide communications “pause” that has stymied releases across the health agencies, which is timed to end in the days after Kennedy’s confirmation hearings wrap up.
What is RFK Jr.’s stance on abortion rights?
Conservative groups have also been divided over Kennedy’s nomination, with some criticizing his past statements voicing support for abortion rights.
The issue is expected to be a large focus of Kennedy’s hearings: as secretary, he would have authority over how the FDA regulates medications used for abortions.
Kennedy has reassured conservative groups and lawmakers that he would hew closely to Mr. Trump’s campaign trail promise to defer the issue to the states.
But Kennedy and the Trump administration will have little room to avoid the issue, given an ongoing federal court case against the FDA. Conservatives have called on the Trump administration’s FDA to roll back moves made since 2016 to ease access to abortion pills.
The FDA’s decision to ease those so-called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies or REMS restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone were the focus of a Supreme Court case last year that ended in defeat for abortion opponents.
“Walking back REMS has significantly increased safety risks for women. And so from our perspective, as directed by the administration, we do believe that an RFK HHS has the ability to direct the FDA to review safety,” said John Mize, CEO of Americans United for Life.
Mize’s group has petitioned the FDA “urging the reinstatement of basic safety measures” while additional data is collected on their risks. He cited the death of Amber Thurman in a high-profile case that made headlines last year after a medication abortion.
“I’ve seen this from RFK in the past, that he is absolutely laser focused on the safety of pharmaceuticals. And so this gives us a really good opportunity to expose a safety issue,” said Mize.
FDA officials have defended their decision to ease the restrictions, saying that multiple reviews by the agency’s staff support the safety of easing the limits on when during a pregnancy the pills can be taken and allowing mail-order and retail pharmacies to dispense the medication.
What is RFK Jr.’s stance on vaccines?
Many Democrats, nonprofits and health experts have also blasted Kennedy over his record of misleading and unfounded health claims, in addition to work by him and his allies opposing the approvals and authorizations of a range of vaccines, including COVID-19 and polio shots.
Kennedy has sought to assuage concerns that he would upend vaccines using his authority, pledging in the days after the election not to ban any shots.
In his government ethics agreement, Kennedy also promises for a year to not intervene in any matters involving a nonprofit he chaired, Children’s Health Defense, which has battled federal agencies over vaccine authorizations and requirements.
“They’re not interested in validating the press narrative that Bobby’s going to come in and make sweeping changes in vaccine policy. That’s going to be kind of political suicide right now,” said Dr. Robert Malone, a close Kennedy ally who has fiercely opposed the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, told CBS News.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor and head of the Senate’s health committee, said he had “a frank conversation” on “vaccines at length” with Kennedy after voicing concern over his past statements.
The FDA’s top vaccines official has also voiced optimism that he might find common ground with Kennedy over vaccines.
“This is how the sausage gets made. And you know, it’s not always pretty and it isn’t always what you want, but I’m really encouraged to see Bobby be pragmatic about the political realities here,” said Malone.
Who is RFK Jr?
When Kennedy first announced his campaign as a Democratic presidential candidate in April 2023, he touted his decades-long record as an environmental lawyer.
Kennedy — whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated during his 1968 presidential campaign — says he did not want to immediately enter politics, and instead “carried on his family’s legacy by devoting himself to environmental causes and children’s welfare.”
That followed a struggle with substance abuse when he was younger, which he says spanned 14 years after he started using heroin at 15 years old.
Kennedy made headlines for his environmental work was as founder and president of the nonprofit Waterkeeper Alliance from the 1980s until 2020, ranging from local efforts to clean up the Hudson River to campaigning against an oil pipeline in North Dakota.
What Kennedy has described as his “reluctant entrance into the vaccine debate” dates back to 2005, when he wrote an article in Rolling Stone exploring supposed evidence for a link between autism and an ingredient that had formerly been used in some vaccines. The article contained numerous scientific and factual errors and was eventually retracted. Decades of research has established there is no such link.
In 2016, Kennedy joined a nonprofit focused on mercury, which later broadened its focus and rebranded to Children’s Health Defense. Kennedy chaired the group and served as one of its loudest voices raising doubts about vaccines and fighting against vaccine requirements and approvals.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, they clashed with federal health agencies over use of ivermectin and the federal mask mandate in travel. In 2021, the FDA denied their petition asking to revoke all COVID-19 vaccine authorizations and ban studies of the shots for children.
As a candidate, Kennedy continued to say that he thought vaccines as well as “a toxic soup coming mainly from their foods” were to blame for rising rates of autism and other chronic diseases in U.S. children. Experts have attributed the global rise in autism prevalence in part to broader awareness and changes to how the disorder is classified and diagnosed.
Kennedy’s longshot bid to challenge President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary ended in October 2023, when he switched his campaign to an independent presidential bid. He dropped out of the campaign and endorsed Mr. Trump in August 2024.