Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to head the Department of Health and Human Services is poised for a full Senate vote after the Senate Finance Committee favorably reported him Tuesday. 

The panel advanced his nomination on a 14-13 party-line vote. 

Committee chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., who grilled Kennedy on his vaccine skepticism at a hearing last week and had not revealed which way he would vote, ultimately backed Kennedy along with his fellow Republicans on the panel. 

Cassidy said in a social media post shared during the meeting that he would vote yes based on the “serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda." 

Democrats on the panel continued to raise concerns about Kennedy’s nomination, particularly his refusal in nomination hearings to walk back previous claims questioning the safety of vaccines. 

Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Kennedy was given ample opportunities to recant his previous statements on vaccines but instead spent his time “dodging and weaving.” 

“Do senators want their legacy to include disregarding basic health science and instead elevate conspiracies?" Wyden asked. "Making Robert Kennedy secretary of Health and Human Services ... would be a grave threat to the health of the American people.” 

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Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., also a Senate Agriculture Committee member, one of a handful of senators who spoke before the vote, raised concerns with President Donald Trump’s promise to let Kennedy “go wild” on health.

“We need a serious person at the helm of HHS,” Warnock said. “Kennedy appears more obsessed with chasing conspiracies than chasing solutions to lower health care costs for working families in Georgia.” 

Several Republicans who sit on both the Senate Finance and Agriculture committees backed Kennedy’s nomination, including Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Some ag-focused Republicans once questioned Kennedy's nomination given previous criticism of pesticides, seed oils and production agriculture in general. Later, however, in public comments and hearings before both Finance and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, senators worked to paint Kennedy as a friend of agriculture who would fight for farmers. 

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