Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, is appearing today at one of two scheduled Senate committee hearings. He is expected to be grilled about some of his more controversial positions, including on vaccines, abortion and pharmaceuticals.
On Tuesday, his cousin Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, wrote a scathing letter about his nomination.
Caroline Kennedy, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan, called her cousin a “predator,” and said he was “addicted to attention and power,” as The Washington Post reported.
She said RFK Jr.’s children are vaccinated even though he discourages other parents from vaccinating their children, spoke about his past drug abuse, and urged senators to reject her cousin’s nomination.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did not respond to Caroline’s accusations.
On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will appear before the Senate Finance Committee, and on Thursday, he will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel.
The Finance Committee oversees the Medicaid and Medicare programs, and the Health Committee oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and National Institutes of Health. All of these programs would be under Kennedy’s purview if he is confirmed.
It’s unclear if Kennedy has the necessary votes to advance. The two days of hearings are expected to reveal the vulnerabilities lawmakers are most concerned about.
Although Kennedy‘s proposals surrounding food and nutrition — including his promise to rid food of additives and chemicals — enjoy bipartisan support, his anti-vaccine stance is less popular. He has said he doesn’t want to get rid of vaccines, but wants more transparency in the health industry — however his actions on vaccines have not always borne that out.
Kennedy also supports the consumption of raw milk, which, the FDA warns, can lead to illness. He is also against adding fluoride to the water supply, a common practice in the U.S. that is supported by dentists. Some of these views prompted health experts to oppose his nomination, and thousands of them signed letters listing their concerns.
Which Trump nominees were confirmed Tuesday?
The Senate confirmed former Rep. Sean Duffy as the transportation secretary on Tuesday in a 77-22 vote.
Duffy, a five-term congressman, advanced past the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee without a single opposing vote.
The Transportation Department historically hasn’t attracted as much attention, but it did come under scrutiny during former Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s rocky time in office. His tenure during the Biden administration was marked by the 2022 Southwest Airlines winter holidays meltdown, and the tragic 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Duffy promised to improve infrastructure and “usher in a golden age of transportation and travel.”
After leaving Congress in 2019, he joined Fox News and co-hosted a show on the network’s business channel. He met his wife Rachel Campos-Duffy, also a Fox News host, on an MTV reality show and the couple share nine children together.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was also confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday.
Who else is confirmed to Trump’s cabinet?
Duffy and Bessent are the fifth and sixth members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to get sworn in.
Others confirmed since Trump took office include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Who is scheduled for hearings this week?
Here’s a look at this week’s high profile hearings.
Wednesday
The Senate Small Business panel will hold a hearing for former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, the nominee to lead the Small Business Administration. The panel will also hold a meeting to vote on Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick’s confirmation Wednesday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will also hold a meeting to vote on whether to confirm Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general.
Thursday
The nomination of Russ Vought for the director of Office of Management and Budget hangs in the balance in the Senate Budget Committee. Democrats are pushing to stop his nomination amid Trump’s latest executive order on federal assistance.
The White House issued a memo on Tuesday that directed all federal grants to be frozen. A judge later put a stay on the order.
“As much as Trump desires it, the president is not a king. As much as Trump desires it, a law is not a suggestion,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said at a press conference Tuesday. “We have a constitutional crisis.”
Merkley, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, called for a two-week postponement of the committee vote on Vought’s confirmation until the issue is resolved. But Senate Republicans dismissed the concerns and said they will proceed as scheduled.
The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing for Tulsi Gabbard, the nominee for the director of National Intelligence. The schedule indicates the hearing will be followed by a closed-door meeting.
Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, in a post on X, raised concerns about the confidential process, saying senators may be inclined to vote in secret. “The American people deserve to know how THEIR Senators vote on Trump’s nominees!” he wrote.
The jury is still out on whether Gabbard has enough support to be approved by the committee.
Gabbard, a former Democratic member of the House who left her party and endorsed Trump in 2024, faces scrutiny over her past remarks on Russia as well as the ousted Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
After Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, at a Politico breakfast panel, said that he hadn’t sat down with Gabbard, her team found a time for them to meet.
“The biggest problem for me is, she’s been so low profile,” he said at the Politico event. “The others have come to my office and so if you go back to that analogy of a sheet of music, her sheet’s pretty blank for me. I need more information to start filling that in. And, look, if I can’t fill that in, I can’t vote for her.”
After they met, Curtis posted pictures of the meeting, saying, “I’ll carefully evaluate her qualifications to ensure America’s intelligence capabilities remain the best in the world.”
Kash Patel, nominated to run the FBI, will appear in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Patel, a close Trump ally, served in the first Trump administration in various positions, including chief of staff to the secretary of the Defense Department and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, as the Deseret News previously reported.
He started his career as a public defender in Florida and later became a terrorism prosecutor at the Department of Justice.
Patel has received criticism from Democrats for his closeness to Trump and his alleged history of appeasing the president during his first term.
On Thursday, the Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on Daniel Driscoll’s nomination for secretary of Army, and the Foreign Relations Committee will consider the testimony of Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.