Kennedy Confirmed as HHS Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced a contentious path to confirmation as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with vocal bipartisan opposition arising due to his controversial stances on vaccines, food policies, agricultural practices, and environmental regulation. Despite these challenges, Republicans coalesced around President Trump’s nominee and the Senate Finance Committee narrowly voted 14-13 in favor of recommending Kennedy’s confirmation. The full Senate proceeded to confirm RFK Jr. in a 52-48 vote on February 13, 2025. Every Republican voted in favor of RFK Jr. with the exception of Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
One pivotal vote in the committee came from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician who previously voiced strong concerns about Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism. Cassidy's decision to support Kennedy followed assurances from the nominee, as well as from Vice President JD Vance that Kennedy would work toward bipartisan goals on food policy and health initiatives.
Kennedy’s nomination marked another victory for Trump in shaping his cabinet. However, his confirmation hearing exposed deep divisions, even among Republicans who would typically oppose a nominee with Kennedy’s progressive environmental record. Farm-state lawmakers voiced strong objections to his stance on agricultural practices, while Senate Democrats, including former allies, raised serious concerns over his history of promoting vaccine misinformation and potential conflicts of interest related to vaccine litigation. Despite these challenges, Kennedy secured key Republican votes by pledging to prioritize chronic disease prevention and health system reforms. As Secretary, his commitment to shifting HHS’s primary focus from infectious diseases to chronic disease prevention places the food industry at the center of regulatory scrutiny, as he attributes the rise in chronic illnesses primarily to food industry practices.
Key Policy Positions
Nutrition
Kennedy has been an outspoken advocate for revamping the American food system to prioritize health over corporate profits. His “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative seeks to eliminate ultra-processed foods, artificial food dyes, and other additives from the American diet. He has criticized federal nutrition programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), for subsidizing foods like soda and fast food options.
While Kennedy has suggested restricting SNAP benefits from being used for sugary drinks and junk food, policy experts note that the authority to implement such changes lies with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rather than HHS. Nonetheless, he has proposed expanding programs like Double Up Food Bucks, which incentivize the purchase of fresh produce with SNAP benefits.
His agenda has drawn mixed reactions. Some nutrition experts praise his focus on chronic disease prevention, while others argue that restricting food choices could harm low-income families. Furthermore, the food industry is expected to push back against his efforts to regulate ingredients like seed oils and artificial sweeteners. Kennedy is strongly opposed to processed or ultra-processed foods, despite being disparities in the exact definitions of what processed or ultra-processed foods are.
Kennedy did agree to address conflicts of interest in the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. In particular, Kennedy committed to providing the committee with the confidential financial disclosures of the Advisory Committee before any dietary guidelines proposals would be finalized.
Healthcare
Robert Kennedy has spoken and written at length about his preferred reforms to the healthcare space. One point Kennedy continued to return to surrounded chronic disease. In particular, Kennedy identified chronic disease as the most pressing challenge facing the American healthcare system. He highlighted that, over the past century, both illness rates and government healthcare spending have surged, while the overall health of the American population has declined.
In his writings, speeches, on the campaign trail, and in his Senate confirmation hearings, Kennedy has made his opinions clear on several matters. Kennedy has discussed possible solutions to rural healthcare service gaps which would include telemedicine and potentially implementing AI nurses to create concierge care for all Americans. He also vowed to repeal HHS guidelines on gender affirming care. Other specific policy priorities include
Key PBM reform Priorities:
Support for the PBM Transparency Act: This legislation, introduced in 2023 by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), aims to eliminate opaque PBM pricing and require disclosure of costs, rebates, and markups to lower prescription drug prices.
Regulating PBM practices: Kennedy has voiced concerns that the Big Three PBMs (CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx) engage in price markups that significantly increase costs for patients and independent pharmacies.
Directing savings back to patients: He advocates for taking excess profits away from PBMs and redirecting them into primary care services and direct patient savings.
Key Medicare & Medicaid Priorities
Medicare Drug Price Negotiation: Kennedy has acknowledged that U.S. prescription drug prices are significantly higher than those in other countries and has expressed support for negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries. He tentatively supports provisions under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, which requires Medicare to negotiate drug prices starting in 2026. However, Kennedy has raised concerns that drug price negotiations could negatively impact pharmacies, particularly independent ones, due to shrinking profit margins.
Medicaid & Medicare Structural Changes: Kennedy has indicated openness to consolidating Medicaid and Medicare into a more streamlined system, though details remain unclear. He does support Medicaid reform but has not specified whether he would seek expansion or cuts. He spoke at length about “value-based care models”, where providers are incentivized for health outcomes rather than service volume. Kennedy has also proposed cooperative health programs and health savings accounts (HSAs) as potential alternatives for certain beneficiaries.
Key Prescription Drug Priorities
Prescription Drug Pricing & Domestic Manufacturing: Kennedy is very opposed to what he calls “pharmaceutical price gouging” and has indicated that he would focus on capping U.S. drug prices at levels similar to European nations and mandating price transparency on television ads for prescription drugs. Regarding ads, he also supports banning direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Another ‘tool in the toolbox’ for Kennedy would be to encourage domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing to reduce drug shortages and lessen dependence on foreign supply chains. Towards all of these efforts, Kennedy supports public-private partnerships to improve transparency in the pharmaceutical industry.
Vaccines
Kennedy’s history of questioning vaccine safety was the most controversial aspect of his nomination and a major topic of discussion in his confirmation hearings. For years, he has promoted skepticism about vaccines through his organization, Children’s Health Defense, and has made claims connecting vaccines to autism. It is important to note that these claims that have been resoundingly debunked by the scientific community.
During his confirmation hearings, Sen. Cassidy directly challenged Kennedy to renounce his past anti-vaccine statements, but Kennedy refused, stating he would “continue to review the research” and apologize if proven wrong. This refusal intensified opposition from Senate Democrats, who expressed fear that as HHS Secretary, he could undermine public trust in vaccination programs.
Despite these concerns, Kennedy has reassured lawmakers that he will not seek to eliminate vaccines but will push for increased transparency regarding their safety and efficacy. Other Republican holdouts, such as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), took this as a sufficient commitment, though any deviation from this stance could reignite opposition even after his confirmation.
During his confirmation hearing, senators secured several specific vaccine-related commitments. If confirmed, Kennedy assured lawmakers that: 1) the FDA would neither deprioritize nor delay the review and approval of new vaccines; 2) he would not obstruct, divert, or delay congressional funding for vaccination programs; 3) he would not introduce conditions in grant applications that could limit, restrict, or rescind vaccine access; and 4) affirmed his support for the Avian flu vaccine should it become available.
Agriculture and Food Production
Kennedy has supported agricultural policy proposals that have raised concerns among large-scale farming and biotech industries. He has been particularly vocal about reducing the use of synthetic pesticides, reassessing the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and imposing stricter regulations on glyphosate, one of the most widely used herbicides. Critics argue that such policies could have significant negative implications for American farmers, raising costs and reducing productivity.
In remarks during his confirmation hearings, Kennedy stated, "We will scrutinize the chemical additives in our food supply." He emphasized the need for the NIH and FDA to investigate the link between food additives and chronic disease, highlighting his focus on greater transparency in food safety. While clearly supporting reducing the use of additives, he asserted several times that his approach would not impose restrictions on personal choice, stating, "I am not the enemy of food producers."
Kennedy has also criticized industrial food production methods, advocating for a shift toward organic and regenerative agriculture. While these approaches align with sustainable farming objectives, they pose significant economic challenges and could disrupt the existing food supply chain. Implementing such practices on a large scale may further increase the nation’s dependence on foreign food imports—a growing concern, as the United States became a net food importer for the first time in its history under the Biden administration.
Environmental and Health Regulations
As an environmental lawyer, and a longtime Democrat, Kennedy has been an outspoken champion for stricter regulations on pollutants and industrial contaminants. He has a long history of linking environmental toxins to rising chronic diseases, arguing that the government has focused too much on infectious disease control while neglecting critical environmental health risks.
While the HHS Secretary will have limited authority over environmental regulations, which primarily fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he is expected to push for stricter standards on water quality, food safety, and chemical exposure limits.
In terms of some of the most notable proposals, his support to ban fluoride in drinking water and reduce exposure to electromagnetic radiation from wireless technology have drawn skepticism from the scientific community, which largely dismisses these concerns as unfounded.
Abortion
RFK’s stance on abortion has evolved over time. During his 2024 presidential campaign, he expressed that while he considered abortions a "tragedy," he believed it should remain a woman's right throughout pregnancy. In August 2023, he appeared to support a national ban on abortions after the first trimester, stating, "Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child." However, his campaign later clarified that he had misunderstood the question and that he did not support legislation banning abortion.
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy stated that he believed "every abortion is a tragedy." He also assured Republican lawmakers privately that he would “reinstate President Trump’s pro-life policies at HHS.” Within Kennedy’s public testimony, he pledged to investigate the safety of mifepristone, one drug in a so-called medication abortion. The drug has been the focus of attacks by anti-abortion campaigners since the fall of Roe v Wade and is now the most common way to end a pregnancy.
A Transformational HHS Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as HHS Secretary became one of the most politically charged cabinet appointments in recent history. While supporters see him as a bold disruptor determined to challenge corporate influence over public health, critics fear that his controversial views on vaccines, food policy, and environmental health could erode evidence-based policymaking.
Moreover, his charisma and assertiveness, a trademark of the Kennedy family, could grant him an unusually broad influence beyond the typical scope of an HHS Secretary. His proposals – some of which overlap with the jurisdictions of the Agriculture Secretary and the EPA Administrator – may gain traction within the cabinet through cross-agency collaboration, further amplifying his impact.
What remains certain is that, even within the core responsibilities of HHS, Kennedy’s tenure is expected to be marked by intense policy battles – particularly with the pharmaceutical industry, agribusiness, and food manufacturers. Whether he can successfully implement his vision for a healthier America remains to be seen, but his nomination alone has already reshaped the national debate on public health, nutrition, and agriculture policy.