Senators confirmed environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary after the controversial nominee successfully eased lawmakers’ concerns over previous views on abortion and vaccines.
The upper chamber voted 52 to 48 for confirmation of the new HHS secretary, who previously battled a 14-year heroin addiction and is now the highest-ranking Kennedy in the federal government since his father was attorney general.
Despite the sparring on Capitol Hill from Democrats and some Republicans who claimed Kennedy would do otherwise, Kennedy sailed to confirmation with just one GOP defection — former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Kennedy triumphed after two separate hours-long Senate hearings last month before the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Democrats grilled the incoming HHS secretary on his prior criticism of vaccines, while Republicans sought reassurances he would embrace Trump’s first term approach to abortion.
“I support the measles vaccine. I support the polio vaccine,” Kennedy said plainly in his first hearing. “I will do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking either of those vaccines.”
Kennedy also mitigated concerns among Republicans about the former Democrat’s recent endorsement for abortion on-demand and recommitted to implementing Trump’s first-term agenda on the issue.
“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,” he said. “I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year.”
Kennedy said he was aligned with the president that abortion was a state’s issue and that it should be banned for late-term pregnancies.
“I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies,” he said.
Kennedy said he would also investigate the safety of mifepristone and carry out the president’s demand on how to regulate the abortion drug when the decision is made.
A group backed by former Vice President Mike Pence, Advancing American Freedom, targeted Kennedy’s previous support for Democrats’ platform on abortion to convince conservative lawmakers to turn down the nomination. The group, however, according to CNN, has also received a six-figure donation from a pharma-funded foundation built on an empire of sugar substitutes and birth control pills.
Kennedy’s realignment on abortion, however, outraged Democrats.
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., accused Kennedy of being a “sellout.”
“You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values,” Hassan said. “Do you stand for that value or not?”
“Senator, I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,” he said.
Kennedy went on the offensive during his second day of hearings in a fiery exchange with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
“The problem of corruption is not just in the federal agencies, it’s in Congress too,” Kennedy said. “Almost all the members of this panel, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry and protecting their interests.”
A Federalist analysis of industry donations compiled by OpenSecrets found senators across both committees have raked in more than $10 million from the pharmaceutical industry between 2019 and 2024.