The Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 4 voted to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote—bringing Kennedy one step closer to becoming Secretary of one of the nation’s largest agencies.
Kennedy won by a narrow margin after securing Sen. Bill Cassidy’s (R-La.) vote, with 14 Republicans voting to advance him and 13 Democrats voting against him. Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that oversees HHS and a pro-vaccine enthusiast, was the only Republican rumored to be a possible hold-out.
However, Cassidy’s endorsement was not without strings. In what appears to be an attempt to tie Kennedy’s hands as HHS Secretary, Cassidy attached the following conditions to his vote:
- RFK Jr will have a close working relationship with Cassidy and multiple meetings a month.
- Cassidy will help hire for the health agencies, arguably to ensure that Kennedy does not hire people who question vaccines.
- Kennedy will work with current safety monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems, even though there are significant problems with these current systems.
- Kennedy will maintain the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices recommendations without changes. This is a group of “independent advisors” with ties to the agency and pharmaceutical companies that make vaccine recommendations—and currently recommend COVID shots to babies and more than 72 vaccine doses for children under 18.
- The CDC will not remove statements on its website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism (even though science suggests and government payouts reinforce that vaccines can, in fact, cause autism).
- Kennedy will not use “sue and settle” techniques to change policies without Congress.
- Kennedy will come in front of the HELP committee every quarter if requested.
- The HELP committee chair may choose a representative for any board or commission formed to review vaccine safety to protect the pro-vaccine agenda.
- HHS must give a 30-day notice to the committee if the agency seeks to change any of the federal vaccine safety monitoring programs, and the committee can review it.
- Cassidy will use his authority to rebuff any attempt to remove the public’s access to “life-saving vaccines” without ironclad evidence that shows otherwise.
- Cassidy will watch for any effort to wrongfully sew confusion about vaccines.
Cassidy was apparently “struggling” with Kennedy’s nomination as proceedings came to a close, but the two spoke more last weekend and on Tuesday morning prior to the vote.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy said in a statement posted to X. “I want to thank VP JD specifically for his honest counsel. With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.”
Later, in comments following the vote on the Senate floor, Cassidy spoke about what Kennedy said during those conversations.
“Mr. Kennedy and the administration reached out seeking to reassure me regarding their commitment to protecting the public health benefit of vaccination. To this end, Mr. Kennedy and the administration committed that he and I would have an unprecedentedly close collaborative working relationship if he is confirmed,” Cassidy said.
Yet critics of Cassidy’s stipulations say the move is unprecedented.
“Imagine if a lone Senator attempted to obstruct any other Cabinet Secretary—say, Pete Hegseth at the Department of Defense or Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice—based on personal bias and political agenda. The backlash would be immediate,” an anonymous source told The Vault Project.
“Many Americans voted for Trump because he pledged to appoint RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS. No one elected Cassidy to dictate that decision. It sets a dangerous precedent when a single Senator can leverage their vote through a backdoor deal that undermines the will of the people.”
The Senate is scheduled to vote on Kennedy’s confirmation early next week, and his nomination “is likely to succeed absent any last-minute vote switches,” according to The Associated Press reported. Kennedy will be confirmed even if he does not receive any votes from Democrats and loses three Republican votes.
If successfully confirmed, Kennedy will be in charge of a $1.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2025 and will oversee 13 public health agencies and nearly 90,000 employees.
During last week’s confirmation hearings, Kennedy highlighted his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda and said he would focus on the chronic disease epidemic in the U.S., good science, and radical transparency. He also vocalized his support for vaccines—if backed by good science.
