Senate panel backs Trump health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Republican-led U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday advanced President Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, paving the way for the full Senate to vote to confirm him as soon as this week.

The committee 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.