After two contentious Senate committee hearings on President Donald Trump’s nominee for HHS secretary, the votes are in: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will officially take the role as the nation’s leading health authority.
RFK Jr. was confirmed through a party-line, 52 to 48 vote on Thursday, The New York Times reported, securing support from the crucial Republican lawmakers required to outnumber the unified Democratic voters. Just one Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, joined the other side in voting against the confirmation.
Only three GOP senators could have defected to maintain the thin margin Republicans had over the Democrats, The Washington Post previously reported.
The nomination was originally considered one of Trump’s more controversial picks, considering RFK Jr.’s history of antivaccine views. Democrats staunchly opposed the appointment in light of his background and ethics concerns.
Following Wednesday’s procedural vote that set the stage for Thursday morning’s final call, Democrats held the Senate floor for 30 hours to oppose the “dangerous” confirmation, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, explained in a press release.
“Now, I’ve been sounding the alarm about Kennedy since the minute Donald Trump announced that he would nominate him for HHS Secretary,” Warren said in her remarks. “It’s not just that he’s unqualified—his long history of promoting anti-science conspiracy theories make him disqualified."
Warren also referred RFK Jr.’s financial interest in litigation surrounding Merck’s HPV vaccine Gardasil. The new secretary, formally a practicing environmental lawyer, disclosed his ties to the lawsuits in an ethics agreement. Since then, he has agreed to divest the referral fees he collects in cases referred to the law firm Winser Baum to his adult son.
Republicans, meanwhile, have largely accepted the nomination with open arms. Finance committee chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, praised RFK Jr.’s “passion for addressing America’s chronic disease epidemic” and “dedication to transparency” in his own Wednesday remarks on the Senate floor.
“Mr. Kennedy’s decades of experience and deep drive to advocate on behalf of consumers will set a patient-centered tone at the Department,” Crapo said. “As he has demonstrated in both public and private settings, Mr. Kennedy is committed to reorienting our approach to health care and restoring faith in our institutions.
The Senate Finance Committee first cleared the way for the nomination to advance on Feb. 4 in another close party-line vote. In that vote, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, seemed to walk back his prior hesitation after speaking with RFK Jr. and other Trump cabinet members privately. Cassidy had previously pressed RFK Jr. to address some of his more controversial statements, including his previous claim that vaccines cause autism.
RFK Jr.’s two committee confirmation hearings largely centered on his stance on vaccines and access to abortions, with several Democrats spotlighting some of his previous controversial vaccine safety claims.