Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s marathon stretch of congressional testimony will conclude Wednesday in front of the Senate health committee, which wields the most congressional power to place checks on Kennedy and his chaotic “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Kennedy’s appearance in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, set for 2 p.m. ET, is the last of seven such hearings over the past week. Kennedy has spent much of his testimony defending President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget proposal, which would cut $15.8 billion for HHS, including more than $5 billion to the National Institutes of Health.
Most of the questioning thus far has unfolded along party lines, with Democrats criticizing Kennedy as a conspiracy theorist, while Republicans mostly have praised his and Trump’s leadership. But some Republicans have also critiqued him, including Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, who said at Kennedy’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing last week that the health and human services secretary underdelivered on his promise to uncover the causes of autism.
All eyes will be on Senate HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician who has been publicly critical of Kennedy over his attempts to roll back federal vaccine policy. Cassidy cast the deciding vote to confirm Kennedy, but only after he received specific promises from Kennedy around vaccines — some of which he has since broken.
Despite Cassidy’s vote last February, the pair’s relationship has since deteriorated due to their disagreements over vaccines. The tension has spilled into Cassidy’s re-election race: A group run by one of Kennedy’s closest friends, the book publisher Tony Lyons, has committed to spend $1 million to back Cassidy’s primary challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow, who also has been endorsed by Trump.
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The Senate health committee will continue to play a critical role in enabling, or blocking, Kennedy’s MAHA agenda as it considers a couple key federal health nominees in the coming weeks.
Cassidy and two other Republicans on the committee, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have yet to endorse the administration’s nominee for surgeon general, the wellness entrepreneur Dr. Casey Means, who is an ally of Kennedy’s and closely aligned with the MAHA movement. It would take only one of the three senators to vote against Means for her nomination to fail, assuming all Democrats on the committee voted against her.
The Senate health committee will also decide whether to advance the nomination of the administration’s choice for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Erica Schwartz.
Schwartz, a former deputy surgeon general, has earned the cautious support of public health experts because of her traditional public health background and past support of vaccines. If confirmed, Schwartz will be the first permanent CDC director since the previous one, Dr. Susan Monarez, was forced out by Kennedy for what she has alleged was refusing to preemptively sign off on vaccine recommendations made by an independent committee.
Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.