Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s controversial nominee to show into secretary of Effectively being and Human Suppliers, 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 starting at 10 a.m. ET.
The GOP has a one-vote margin on the committee, which suggests 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 full Senate for a vote sooner than he may very well be confirmed.
The newest on the RFK Jr. nomination vote
If confirmed, Kennedy would oversee a $1.7 trillion annual funds and 13 firms, along with the Nationwide Institutes of Effectively being and the Services for Sickness Administration 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 Effectively being and Human Suppliers consists of the names of medical docs who’ve had their licenses revoked, suspended or confronted completely different self-discipline, The Associated Press has found.
Sen. Bill Cassidy is the vote to have a look at
The letter was meant to lend credibility to Kennedy’s nomination, which has confronted strenuous opposition from medical specialists ensuing from his twenty years of anti-vaccine activism. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a medical doctor who boasts on his official web page of an effort he created to vaccinate 36,000 kids in direction of hepatitis B, expressed hesitancy about Kennedy’s nomination and is seen as a key vote.
The AP found that together with the physicians who had confronted disciplinary movement, many of the nearly 800 signers often aren’t medical docs. The letter with the names of those who signed was provided to the AP by Sen. Ron Johnson’s office after he entered it into the Congressional Doc on Wednesday all through the primary of Kennedy’s two affirmation hearings.
Amongst those who signed it had been a self-described journalist, a licensed public accountant, a firefighter/paramedic, a licensed properly being coach and someone who said that they’d a bachelor’s diploma “with an emphasis on Jungian Psychology.” The signers embody as a minimum 75 nurses, along with physician assistants. Higher than 90 did not embody any credentials the least bit.
Over 20 had been chiropractors, representing an enterprise that has funded Kennedy’s work. An AP investigation found 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 Movement, which is run by Del Bigtree, who labored for Kennedy’s presidential advertising and marketing marketing campaign and is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. The Washington Put up reported Wednesday that Kennedy transferred the trademark for the “MAHA” slogan to an restricted obligation agency run by Bigtree. Kennedy reported that he acquired $100,000 in income from licensing the slogan and said in his financial 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 Good As soon as extra.”
Bigtree and Kennedy did not return messages on the lookout for comment. A White Dwelling spokesman, Kush Desai, said the administration seems to be like forward 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” devoted to addressing energy sickness.
The AP’s consider found that as a minimum 10 medical docs who signed the letter had run into hassle with state medical boards or their board certification physique for a variety of alleged misconduct. Sanctions they confronted included having their license revoked or suspended, being positioned on probation, receiving a reprimand or completely different movement. One acquired a warning letter from the Federal Commerce Charge, which said he was unlawfully selling merchandise as cures or prevention for COVID-19, along with intravenous nutrient treatment and dietary nutritional vitamins.
Among the many many signers was Paul Thomas, an anti-vaccine doctor who voluntarily surrendered his medical license in 2022 after Oregon’s medical board found he had engaged in repeated and gross negligence throughout the observe of remedy.
Meryl Nass, whose medical license was suspended in Maine over her treatment of COVID-19 victims, moreover signed. She knowledgeable the AP she is fascinating the selection and expects to be completely vindicated.
On the very least two of the medical docs had been disciplined, earlier to the pandemic, for improperly giving out vaccine waivers, along with one who had his license revoked and one different who was positioned on probation. One different doctor’s license was revoked for refusing to watch COVID-19 pointers.
Put up said MAHA Movement’s letter was merely actually considered one of plenty of provided to the Senate supporting Kennedy, along with one which she provided a hyperlink to that she said was signed by “17,000 medical professionals.” That letter stated it was from worldwide medical suppliers and did not embody the names of those who signed.
Opponents of Kennedy’s nomination despatched their very personal letter with signatures from what they said had been better than 18,000 “vetted and verified” medical docs. The group, the Committee to Defend Effectively being Care, said that the letter was initially circulated amongst verified physicians and that as additional signatures had been added, their credentials had been checked. The group provided the itemizing of signatories to the AP nonetheless with anonymized names that included the first preliminary of their first determine along with the first three letters of their remaining determine, along with their medical credentials. They said medical docs’ names had been anonymized for his or her privateness and to protect them from harassment.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., questioned Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about flip-flopping views on healthcare factors all through his Senate affirmation listening to on Wednesday.
