1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

US Senate committee advances RFK Jr. health sec nomination

Matt Ford with AFP, Reuters
February 4, 2025

President Donald Trump's nomination for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, has cleared a key hurdle. Opponents had declared RFK Jr. unfit for the public health role due to his anti-vaccine stances.

https://p.dw.com/p/4q1ub
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Opponents had declared Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unfit for the public health role due to his anti-vaccine stances.Image: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s candidacy for Secretary of Health and Human Services in US President Donald Trump's new administration received a boost on Tuesday when the US Senate Committee on Finance voted to advance his nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

Trump's nomination of Kennedy for the key public health role has been considered controversial due to the latter's role in the anti-vaccine movement.

National health groups, Democrats, the Wall Street Journal and New York Post editorial boards and even family members had all voiced opposition to his nomination.

Team Trump: A misinformation machine?

Vote to advance fell along party lines

But the committee on Tuesday voted 14-13 to advance Kennedy "favorably" to a final vote.

While all the Democrats on the committee voted against Kennedy, all the Republicans voted in favor, including Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who admitted last week that, as a medical doctor who also chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he was "struggling" with the decision.

As the vote was occurring, Cassidy posted on social media that he conducted "very intense conversations" with Kennedy and the White House over the weekend, thanking Vice-President JD Vance in particular for his "honest counsel."

He said: "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."

Trump picks vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. as health secretary

Kennedy would oversee vaccine recommendations

If confirmed in the full Senate, which could happen as early as this week, Kennedy will oversee more than $3 trillion in healthcare spending, including the agency in charge of the Medicare and Medicaid

Despite spreading doubts about the efficacy and safety of vaccines which are proven to have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades, Kennedy disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.

Nevertheless, shares of vaccine manufacturers fell after the vote, Pfizer by 1.8% and BioNTech by 3%. Moderna was down 5.1%.

Tulsi Gabbard
Tulsi Gabbard is on track to become US Director of National IntelligenceImage: Jeenah Moon/REUTERS

Trump nominee Gabbard to be top US spy

Also on Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to recommend Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.

Another one of President Trump's more contentious nominations, doubts had been cast over Gabbard due to her lack of experience and past statements seen as supporting US adversaries.

Like Kennedy, Gabbard's nomination passed the Senate committee staged thanks to a vote which went along party lines, with every Republican senator backing her and every Democrat voting against her, two sources told Reuters.

Edited by: Louis Oelofse

DW Matthew Ford Sports
Matt Ford Reporter for DW News