By The Senate Finance Committee voted Tuesday to advance to the floor Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
The 14-13 vote was strictly along party lines and came despite Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) saying last week he had serious doubts about whether Kennedy is qualified to lead the agency, primarily over his history of promoting a false link between vaccines and autism.
Cassidy had emerged as the pivotal vote, as Kennedy couldn’t afford to lose any Republicans on the committee. Kennedy can lose three on the Senate floor and still be confirmed, with Vice President Vance breaking the tie.
In a statement after the vote, Cassidy said he had “intense conversations” with Kennedy over the weekend and even this morning, and said he also spoke with Vance.
“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,” Cassidy said.
The three GOP senators who voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine) — are all seen as potential wild cards on Kennedy as well. None of them sit on the Finance Committee.
According to Fox News, Kennedy and Cassidy spoke Sunday after the lawmaker said during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee confirmation hearing last week that he remained skeptical, and suggested the two might talk over the weekend.
Cassidy, a practicing gastroenterologist, has been facing enormous pressure from Kennedy supporters and Louisiana Republicans ahead of the vote. He appeared torn between loyalty to President Trump and a commitment to medicine.
Cassidy could still vote against RFK Jr. on the Senate floor, though he gave no indication on Tuesday that he would do so.
Kennedy is one of Trump’s most high-profile nominees, and his two confirmation hearing last week featured some fireworks as Democrats hammered him for promoting misinformation about vaccines, flip-flopping on abortion, conflicts of interest in his legal work, and his general lack of understanding about the details of health policies that would fall under his charge.
Ahead of the vote, Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) reiterated his concerns over Kennedy’s vaccine views, saying Kennedy was unfit to lead the nation’s federal health agencies.
” Mr. Kennedy was given ample opportunity on a bipartisan basis to recant his decades-long career peddling anti-vaccine conspiracies,” Wyden said. “Instead, he dodged and weaved, and gave no indication that if confirmed as HHS Secretary, he would stand by the long-settled science surrounding routine vaccinations.”
Wyden added that the vote was about the future of science and health in America.
“The question in front of us this morning is pretty simple. Do Senators want their legacy to include disregarding basic health science and instead of elevating conspiracy theorists?” he asked.
Updated at 11:27 a.m. EST