RFK Jr. confirmed as HHS secretary, McConnell again is lone GOP defector

21 hrs ago

Cole Lauterbach Managing Editor

By Cole Lauterbach (Managing Editor)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed as the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with the Senate vote falling along party lines. However, Kennedy’s anti-vaccine position was a major point of contention, leading to opposition from Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Kennedy ran for president during the 2024 campaign as an independent. He promised to push for healthier food options and a greater emphasis on physical fitness.

The Department of Health and Human Services, a $1.7 trillion agency, oversees vaccine implementation, development and other medical policies.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday, Feb. 13. The vote fell along party lines in the U.S. Senate, with only Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., joining Democrats in voting against Kennedy’s confirmation.

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RFK Jr.’s nomination is the latest of President Donald Trump’s picks to succeed in getting enough Senators’ support for their nominations. The second-term Republican has yet to send a nomination before the GOP-led Senate that was rejected.

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Kennedy ran for president during the 2024 campaign as an independent before dropping out to endorse Trump. He ran on a slogan of “Make America Healthy Again,” promising to push for healthier food options and a greater emphasis on physical fitness.

McConnell, who also voted against the nominations of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, said in a statement on Thursday that RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine stance was a non-starter.

“I’m a survivor of childhood polio,” McConnell said. “In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., had largely been a question mark in confirming Kennedy. Cassidy is a physician and expressed skepticism over the member of the famed Camelot family due to RFK’s stance on vaccines.

In one of Kennedy’s hearings, Cassidy provided Kennedy with information definitively stating that science had proven no correlation between vaccines and autism. Kennedy instead presented another study to the senator as counter-evidence.

Cassidy later said in a floor speech that Kennedy reassured him that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wouldn’t remove vaccine guidance as well as maintain language dispelling that vaccines cause autism.

HHS is a $1.7 trillion government agency that oversees vaccine implementation and development, pandemic preparedness, health care and other medical policies.