By Ahmed Aboulenein and Stephanie Kelly
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, moved closer to securing the job on Tuesday, winning a recommendation from a congressional panel despite doubts about his previous opposition to vaccines.
The Senate Finance Committee voted to advance the nomination to a full Senate vote as soon as this week, after a key Republican senator dropped reservations he had about Kennedy’s suitability for the role.
The Republican-led panel voted 14-13 along party lines with Democrats having accused Kennedy over two days of contentious confirmation hearings of being financially vested in the anti-vaccine movement and peddling conspiracy theories to sow doubt about lifesaving medicines – assertions Kennedy rejected.
If confirmed in the full Senate, he will run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees more than $3 trillion in healthcare spending, including agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration and the agency in charge of Medicare and Medicaid health programs that provide health insurance for over 140 million Americans.
Kennedy has faced opposition from health groups, Democrats, family members and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post editorial boards, who say he is unfit for the job because of his role in the anti-vaccine movement.
Kennedy has long sown doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb disease and prevent deaths for decades. He disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and has said he would not prevent Americans from getting inoculations.
Shares of vaccine manufacturers and packaged food companies fell after the vote. Pfizer’s stock was down 1.8%, along with U.S. shares of its COVID-19 vaccine partner, BioNTech, which was down 3%. Moderna was down 5.1% and Novavax down around 1%.
Shares of Hershey, Mondelez, Kraft Heinz, General Mills were all down 2%.
Kennedy calls for banning hundreds of food additives and chemicals. He has also called for getting ultra-processed foods out of school lunches.
Before the vote on Tuesday, Republican committee member Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who also chairs the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, was seen as a potential swing vote against Kennedy after he said during a confirmation hearing last week that he was struggling with the decision.
Cassidy later said on the Senate floor that he had received commitments over the weekend from Kennedy and the White House that swayed him, including “an unprecedentedly close collaborative working relationship” that sees Kennedy and Cassidy meeting multiple times a month. Kennedy also gave Cassidy assurances over vaccines.
“He has also committed that he will work within the current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems,” said Cassidy.
“If confirmed, he will maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes,” he said. “CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.”
Now, Kennedy needs the support of at least 50 senators, which would allow Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm his nomination.
The Republican-controlled Senate has not rejected any of Trump’s nominees so far. His controversial defense secretary pick, Pete Hegseth, squeaked by in a 51-50 vote after Vance was needed to break a tie in January.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is due on Tuesday to vote behind closed doors on former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to become director of national intelligence, another Trump nominee facing an uncertain path to confirmation.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Stephanie Kelly in New York; additional reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; editing by Caroline Humer and Alistair Bell)
