RFK Jr. set to face Sen. Bill Cassidy in back-to-back Senate hearings

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heads to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a possible collision with the Republican who helped him take the job: Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy.

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This will be Kennedy’s first appearance in nearly a year before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, chaired by Cassidy. The senator, who is up for re-election, voted last year to confirm Kennedy after securing a series of promises from Kennedy, including that he would preserve federal vaccine recommendations and appear regularly before the committee.

Kennedy did not keep his promises; Cassidy limited his criticism of the health secretary to social media posts and press statements. He has been vocal about his support for vaccines, including during the March confirmation hearing of Dr. Casey Means, a Kennedy ally who has questioned vaccines. Cassidy has not yet scheduled a vote to advance Means’ nomination.

Wednesday’s hearing will mark Kennedy’s first appearance before Cassidy since a contentious Senate Finance Committee hearing in September and could offer the clearest sign yet of how the senator plans to handle those concerns. A spokesperson for Cassidy declined to comment on what the senator plans to ask Kennedy.

Kennedy is also expected to answer questions from Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is retiring next year and has said he plans to speak more freely about his views, including about members of Trump’s Cabinet. (Tillis voted to confirm every member of Trump’s Cabinet in 2025.)

Kennedy will appear before the Finance Committee in the morning and before the HELP Committee in the afternoon.

In January, Kennedy overhauled the childhood vaccination schedule, reducing the number of diseases children are recommended to be vaccinated against from 18 to 11 — a move that Cassidy later said in an article on X would “make America sicker.” The changes removed recommendations that all babies should be protected against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, RSV, dengue fever and two types of bacterial meningitis.

In March, a federal judge blocked those changes and suspended new Kennedy appointees to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. The administration has not yet appealed this decision. But Kennedy approved new rules for the committee that could make it easier to circumvent the court’s ruling.

Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law School in San Francisco, said she hopes Cassidy will hold Kennedy accountable.

“There’s a measles epidemic going on,” Reiss said. “Kennedy may have given lukewarm support to the MMR vaccine but, as far as I know, he has made no effort to call on people to get vaccinated or do anything practical to reduce the risk.”

Kennedy has already testified at five congressional hearings in the past week. He has faced strong criticism from Democrats over his vaccine policy and the overhaul of federal health agencies. At a hearing, Kennedy said the United States had “done better” than any other country in preventing measles.

“Judging from Secretary Kennedy’s recent testimony before Congress, it is likely that he will continue to shine a spotlight on the Senate Finance and Aid committees,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. “He continues to use terms like ‘world-class science,’ ‘rigorous evidence,’ and ‘radical transparency,’ when in reality he has done the opposite. »

In an emailed statement, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, called Gostin’s comments “an unfounded accusation that does not correspond to reality.”

Another potential wild card for Kennedy is Tillis, a Republican who is not seeking re-election, Reiss said.

At the September hearing, she noted, Tillis suggested that Kennedy had broken his promises on vaccines, saying, “I also believe that some of your statements seem to contradict what you said at the previous hearing.” »

“Just because you’re a Republican doesn’t mean you have to blindly accept [Kennedy’s actions]” Reiss said.

A spokesperson for Tillis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy could also be asked about his recent comments aimed at overhauling the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a federal group that makes recommendations on preventive services including cancer screenings, as well as President Donald Trump’s executive order intended to boost psychedelic research.