By AMANDA SEITZ and STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal vaccine skeptic and activist lawyer, appeared on observe to develop into the nation’s well being secretary after successful the essential assist of Republican Sen. Invoice Cassidy, a health care provider who says Kennedy has assured him he wouldn’t topple the nation’s childhood vaccination program.
In a starkly partisan vote, the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee superior Kennedy’s nomination 14-13, sending his bid to supervise the $1.7 trillion U.S. Well being and Human Companies company for a full vote on the Senate ground.
All Democrats on the committee opposed Kennedy, whose household title had been synonymous with their social gathering for generations earlier than he aligned with President Donald Trump through the 2024 presidential marketing campaign. They sounded an alarm on Kennedy’s work to sow doubt round vaccine security and his potential to revenue off lawsuits over drugmakers.
A full Senate vote has not but been scheduled, however with Cassidy’s vote not unsure Kennedy’s nomination is more likely to succeed absent any last-minute vote switches. Kennedy has been among the many extra contentious of Trump’s Cupboard decisions, and Republicans coalescing round him confirmed one other highly effective measure of close to lockstep allegiance to the president.
Cassidy had publicly detailed his private battle, as a health care provider who has seen the lifesaving capability of vaccines, with Kennedy’s affirmation. “Your past, undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments, concerns me,” Cassidy advised Kennedy final week.
But when it got here to his vote Tuesday, he superior Kennedy with a easy “aye.”
Cassidy, who’s up for reelection subsequent yr and will face a main problem, later described “intense conversations” with Kennedy and Vice President JD Vance that began over the weekend and continued into Tuesday morning, simply earlier than the vote. These conversations yielded “serious commitments” from the administration, Cassidy stated. His reelection marketing campaign had “absolutely zero to do with the decision,” he advised reporters.
Cassidy stated in a speech afterward the Senate ground that, in change for his assist, Kennedy has promised to not make adjustments to current vaccine suggestions which were made by a federal advisory committee and has agreed to not scrub the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention of statements that make clear vaccines don’t trigger autism. As well as, Cassidy stated Kennedy will seek the advice of with him on new hires for the company and seem if requested quarterly earlier than the Senate’s well being committee, which Cassidy chairs. A 30-day discover can be despatched to the committee if Kennedy seeks to make adjustments federal vaccine security monitoring applications.
“He will be the secretary,” Cassidy stated. “But I believe he will also be a partner in working for this end.”
Cassidy stated Kennedy’s formidable following waged a most strain marketing campaign, bombarding his workplace with hundreds of messages every day. Pediatricians reached out, too, expressing fears of rampant illness outbreaks and deaths amongst youngsters if a person who has a historical past of denigrating inoculations is put in because the nation’s well being secretary, he stated.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one other weak vote that Kennedy labored to win over, stated he was reassured final week by the well being secretary nominee’s promise to let scientists on the public well being businesses, together with the Facilities for Illness Management and the Nationwide Institutes for Well being, work “independently.”
“The only way that Bobby Kennedy will get crosswise is if he does take a position against the safety of proven vaccines,” Tillis stated. “That will be a problem to me.”
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have additionally been seen as doubtlessly unsecured votes, as a result of they voted in opposition to Trump’s protection secretary nominee and have expressed issues about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine work. Kennedy may lose assist from all three of these senators and nonetheless develop into the well being secretary.
Democrats, in the meantime, have continued to boost alarms about Kennedy’s potential to financially profit from altering vaccine tips or weakening federal lawsuit protections in opposition to vaccine makers.
“It seems possible that many different types of vaccine-related decisions and communications — which you would be empowered to make and influence as Secretary — could result in significant financial compensation for your family,” Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter despatched over the weekend to Kennedy.
Kennedy stated he’ll give his son the entire referral charges in authorized circumstances in opposition to vaccine makers, together with the charges he will get from referring purchasers in a case in opposition to Merck. Kennedy advised the committee he’s referred a whole bunch of purchasers to a legislation agency that’s suing Merck’s Gardasil, the human papillomavirus vaccine that forestalls cervical most cancers. He’s earned $2.5 million from the deal over the previous three years.
As secretary, Kennedy could be liable for meals and hospital inspections, offering medical insurance for tens of millions of Individuals and researching lethal ailments.
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