Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed by the Senate as the secretary of President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kennedy was confirmed Thursday in a party-line vote.
The victory caps off a weekslong political battle that threatened to divide Republicans.
Kennedy cleared the GOP-controlled chamber mostly along party lines, 52-48.
RFK Jr. is Trump’s 15th Senate-confirmed nominee in the first weeks of his second term.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who criticized Kennedy’s stance on vaccines, voted no.
As HHS secretary, Kennedy will oversee some of the federal government’s largest public health agencies.
Those agencies include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kennedy is one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks in his second term.
He will now be taking over the very agencies he has spent decades criticizing as an environmental-lawyer-turned-vaccine-skeptic.
RFK Jr. dropped his ill-fated 2024 presidential run to endorse Trump at a critical moment last year.
He has since been embraced by the MAGA base after joining forces with Trump with a promise to “Make America Healthy Again.”
Kennedy was once on shaky ground with several Republicans over his history of vaccine skepticism and promoting abortion rights.
However, Kennedy has steadily won over holdouts in recent weeks by pledging increased congressional oversight.
In recent floor remarks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said:
“Many Americans’ trust in health authorities has eroded in recent years, with the pandemic being a big factor.
“A lot of Americans grew frustrated with confusing and sometimes contradictory guidance from government agencies.”
Kennedy overcame initial hesitation from a group that included Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and John Curtis (R-UT).
In public and private conversations, Kennedy made several commitments to senators.
Those commitments included more input on HHS hiring, greater oversight, and regular meetings; preserving a CDC panel’s recommendations on vaccines and its online language that vaccines do not cause autism; and following Trump’s lead on abortion policy.
“He has made numerous commitments to me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to ensure public access to information and to base vaccine recommendations on data-driven, evidence-based, and medically sound research,” Murkowski said.
Kennedy stressed during his confirmation hearings that he wanted to restore HHS as the home for “honest, unbiased, gold-standard science.”
Democrats voted in unison against RFK Jr., a legacy Democrat and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.
They smeared him as a conspiracy theorist and a “danger” to Americans’ health.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused Republicans of secretly opposing Kennedy but bending to the will of Trump.
“I think likely most Republicans would vote against him if there were a secret ballot,” Schumer said.
“But sadly and unfortunately for America, Republicans are being strong-armed by Donald Trump and will end up holding their nose and voting to confirm Mr. Kennedy.”
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