RFK Jr. seeks to win over Senate GOP skeptics as he begins HHS meetings
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be seeking to ease any skepticism over his confirmation this week as he begins meetings with Senate Republicans over his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kennedy is among the highest-profile names that Trump has rolled out for his Cabinet, which has also featured battles surrounding Pete Hegseth’s nomination to lead the Pentagon, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (Hawaii) selection to lead a key intelligence office.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Trump’s initial pick for attorney general, withdrew from consideration amid GOP discontent.
While Kennedy was considered one of the most controversial choices initially, there has been little public criticism from Senate Republicans. GOP sources believe he is in solid shape overall and has a less rocky path to confirmation than Hegseth and Gabbard.
“He’s in a good spot. You haven’t really heard much consternation about his nomination at all in recent weeks,” one Senate GOP aide told The Hill, adding they expect Kennedy’s focus to be on his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) priorities and assuaging Republicans that he does not still support abortion.
“If that turns out to be true, I think he’ll be on a glide path to being confirmed,” the aide added.
Kennedy’s planned meetings include one with GOP health staff on the Health, Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, according to a source familiar. It’s a customary precursor to his meeting with the panel’s incoming chair, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
Cassidy, one of three GOP senators who voted to convict Trump on an impeachment charge, has said little publicly about Kennedy when asked, only that he wants to let the confirmation process play out. When Kennedy was nominated, Cassidy in a statement noted he “has championed issues like healthy foods and the need for greater transparency in our public health infrastructure.”
Opposition to Kennedy centers mostly on his policy stances, many of which run counter to traditional GOP orthodoxy. He has a long history of questioning vaccines and has promoted the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism.
Kennedy argues the rise of chronic diseases in America can be traced to ultra-processed foods, environmental toxins and chemical additives. He wants to ban fluoridated water and increase access to raw milk.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he wants to talk to Kennedy about genetically modified foods, a key issue for farmers.
“You can't feed 9 billion people on the face of this earth if you don't take advantage of genetic engineering,” said Grassley.
During the presidential campaign, Kennedy said he wants to eliminate genetically modified crops and pesticides.
Grassley, who represents corn-rich Iowa, may also have discussions with Kennedy over high-fructose corn syrup, a product in widespread use in America’s food sector that has been criticized as a factor in obesity.
“I may have to spend a lot of time educating him about agriculture,” Grassley said of Kennedy last month, according to The New York Times.
A number of Republicans also have questions for Kennedy about his pro-abortion stance and how that would affect how he runs HHS.
“I’m going to want to talk about the life issues,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) “The first HHS under President Trump was very intentional in that area. President Biden was very intentional in expanding access to abortion through federal agencies, so [the question is] what is their plan? What are they choosing to do on that?
“I think it will be important to be able to hear,” he added.
When he launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat, Kennedy endorsed a ban on abortion after the first trimester but then quickly backtracked. He also suggested he opposed banning abortion before fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
On his campaign website, Kennedy says he is “a firm supporter of the principles laid out 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade” and that “if the courts do not overturn Dobbs v. Jackson and restore abortion rights, he will support legislation to accomplish the same.”
Republicans will have a 53-47 seat majority next year, so Kennedy will have a small cushion should he encounter GOP opposition. But it remains to be seen whether any Democrats eventually vote to confirm him.
Despite their concerns with the former presidential candidate, some of Kennedy’s views on food policy and nutrition closely align with Democrats.
“Our food, nutrition connections, like the SNAP program. Some of the worst, unhealthiest foods are the highest consumed,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.). “I think there’s common ground [there]. I’m not sure I want to break it all apart and destroy it, but I definitely can see that reform is appropriate.”
During a recent HELP Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others grilled Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf over the agency’s lax regulation of ultra-processed foods, which is a key part of Kennedy’s health agenda.
“For decades, Congress and the FDA have allowed large corporations to make huge profits by enticing children and adults to consume ultra-processed food and beverages loaded up with sugar, salt and saturated fat,” Sanders said.
But while multiple Senate Democrats indicated they are more than willing to sit down with Kennedy in deference to the confirmation process, nobody offered much praise.
“Yeah, of course,” Hickenlooper said when asked if he hopes to meet with Kennedy.
“To make it clear, I would be glad to meet with him,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Wyden, who is the chair of the Finance Committee, added none of the other Democrats on the committee has asked to discuss Kennedy. The Finance Committee will hold a hearing and vote on Kennedy’s confirmation next year with a new GOP majority.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said that he is “very open” to meeting with Kennedy, but he noted it likely won’t be next week as the Senate’s more pressing business, including the National Defense Authorization Act and a stopgap spending package, is set to be dealt with before the Christmas recess.
“I’m going to have to dig into it to know,” Kaine said of possible common ground between them. “I mean, I have some concerns about some of his positions on vaccines and others. Is it an ideological thing, or is he science based? But that’s more general.”
Other Democrats were less charitable.
“He seems like a ridiculous pick to me,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. “It was a payoff, pure and simple. He wasn’t picked because he’s qualified. He was picked because Donald Trump wanted his support for president and gave him anything he wanted.”