Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to develop into secretary of Well being and Human Companies, faces a key vote in a Senate committee on Tuesday.
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to take up, and certain vote, on RFK Jr.’s nomination beginning at 10 a.m. ET.
The GOP has a one-vote margin on the committee, that means Republicans can afford to lose one vote.
Did RFK Jr. get confirmed by the Senate?
As of Tuesday morning, RFK Jr. has not been confirmed by the Senate.
If RFK Jr. passes the committee vote, his nomination would then go to the complete Senate for a vote earlier than he will be confirmed.
The most recent on the RFK Jr. nomination vote
If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee a $1.7 trillion annual price range and 13 companies, together with the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
A letter submitted to the U.S. Senate that states it was despatched by physicians in assist of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as secretary of Well being and Human Companies consists of the names of medical doctors who’ve had their licenses revoked, suspended or confronted different self-discipline, The Related Press has discovered.
Sen. Invoice Cassidy is the vote to look at
The letter was meant to lend credibility to Kennedy’s nomination, which has confronted strenuous opposition from medical specialists attributable to his twenty years of anti-vaccine activism. Republican Sen. Invoice Cassidy of Louisiana, a medical physician who boasts on his official web site of an effort he created to vaccinate 36,000 youngsters in opposition to hepatitis B, expressed hesitancy about Kennedy’s nomination and is seen as a key vote.
The AP discovered that along with the physicians who had confronted disciplinary motion, most of the almost 800 signers aren’t medical doctors. The letter with the names of those that signed was offered to the AP by Sen. Ron Johnson’s workplace after he entered it into the Congressional File on Wednesday in the course of the first of Kennedy’s two affirmation hearings.
Amongst those that signed it have been a self-described journalist, an authorized public accountant, a firefighter/paramedic, an authorized well being coach and somebody who mentioned that they had a bachelor’s diploma “with an emphasis on Jungian Psychology.” The signers embody no less than 75 nurses, in addition to doctor assistants. Greater than 90 didn’t embody any credentials in any respect.
Over 20 have been chiropractors, representing an business that has funded Kennedy’s work. An AP investigation discovered that donations from a chiropractic group represented one-sixth of the revenues collected by Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit in 2019.
The letter was organized and submitted by MAHA Motion, which is run by Del Bigtree, who labored for Kennedy’s presidential marketing campaign and is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. The Washington Submit reported Wednesday that Kennedy transferred the trademark for the “MAHA” slogan to an restricted legal responsibility firm run by Bigtree. Kennedy reported that he obtained $100,000 in earnings from licensing the slogan and mentioned in his monetary disclosures that he had transferred the trademark for “no compensation.”
MAHA stands for “Make America Healthy Again,” a play on President Donald Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more.”
Bigtree and Kennedy didn’t return messages looking for remark. A White Home spokesman, Kush Desai, mentioned the administration appears ahead to the Senate’s swift affirmation of Kennedy.
The letter consists of the header “ Doctors for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ” and begins with the phrases, “We, the undersigned physicians.” It says lower down that it “reflects the collective voice of physicians and medical professionals” dedicated to addressing power illness.
The AP’s evaluation discovered that no less than 10 medical doctors who signed the letter had run into bother with state medical boards or their board certification physique for a wide range of alleged misconduct. Sanctions they confronted included having their license revoked or suspended, being placed on probation, receiving a reprimand or different motion. One obtained a warning letter from the Federal Commerce Fee, which mentioned he was unlawfully promoting merchandise as remedies or prevention for COVID-19, together with intravenous nutrient remedy and nutritional vitamins.
Among the many signers was Paul Thomas, an anti-vaccine physician who voluntarily surrendered his medical license in 2022 after Oregon’s medical board discovered he had engaged in repeated and gross negligence within the apply of medication.
Meryl Nass, whose medical license was suspended in Maine over her therapy of COVID-19 sufferers, additionally signed. She instructed the AP she is interesting the choice and expects to be absolutely vindicated.
At the least two of the medical doctors have been disciplined, previous to the pandemic, for improperly giving out vaccine waivers, together with one who had his license revoked and one other who was placed on probation. One other physician’s license was revoked for refusing to observe COVID-19 pointers.
Submit mentioned MAHA Motion’s letter was simply one in all a number of offered to the Senate supporting Kennedy, together with one which she offered a hyperlink to that she mentioned was signed by “17,000 medical professionals.” That letter said it was from worldwide medical suppliers and didn’t embody the names of those that signed.
Opponents of Kennedy’s nomination despatched their very own letter with signatures from what they mentioned have been greater than 18,000 “vetted and verified” medical doctors. The group, the Committee to Defend Well being Care, mentioned that the letter was initially circulated amongst verified physicians and that as extra signatures have been added, their credentials have been checked. The group offered the checklist of signatories to the AP however with anonymized names that included the primary preliminary of their first identify together with the primary three letters of their final identify, in addition to their medical credentials. They mentioned medical doctors’ names have been anonymized for his or her privateness and to guard them from harassment.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about flip-flopping views on healthcare points throughout his Senate affirmation listening to on Wednesday.
