The Senate controlled by the Republican Party voted Thursday to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti -cacuna activist for a long time, to lead the most powerful medical care agency in the country.
Kennedy was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services in a vote mostly of the 52-48 party line. Senator Mitch McConnell, R-K.
McConnell, a survivor of childhood polyomyelitis, said Kennedy had a “traffic history in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding confidence in public health institutions.”
“Mr. Kennedy could not demonstrate that he is the best possible person to lead the largest health agency in the United States,” McConnell said in a statement. “As the position assumes, I sincerely hope that Mr. Kennedy chooses not to sow more doubts and division but to restore confidence in our public health institutions.”
Even so, Thursday's vote marks another victory for Trump, all whose nominees at the cabinet level that have arrived before the Senate have been approved.
Kennedy will now be in charge of an expansive agency of $ 1.7 billion that directs the pandemic preparation, manages medical care financed by the government for millions of people and supervises the development of drug and pharmaceutical drug traffickers.
Kennedy, a rod from the famous democratic family, managed to overcome concerns among some Republicans for their past positions about vaccines and abortions.
The Republican senator who most vocally questioned Kennedy's qualifications, Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, finally voted to confirm him. Cassidy, a doctor who presides over the health, education, work and pensions committee, had said he was “struggling” with his decision after questioning Kennedy in two confirmation hearings.
But Cassidy, which is already politically vulnerable if it is postulated for re -election, said in a floor speech last week that Kennedy gave him a series of guarantees that he would maintain the advisory committee of control and prevention of prevention of prevention and that he and that he and that he and that he would not eliminate the statements on the CDC website, pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.
Kennedy also assured the support of two other key Republicans, Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, and Susan Collins, from Maine, before the vote.
Murkowski announced his support after, he said, Kennedy assured him his position on vaccines.
“He has made numerous commitments with me and my colleagues, promising to work with Congress to guarantee public access to information and base vaccine recommendations on data -based research, based on evidence and medically solid,” Murkowski wrote in X Wednesday. “These commitments are important to me and, in general, they provide guarantee for my vote.”
Collins offered a similar statement this week, saying that Kennedy relieved his concerns about his positions about vaccines.
In addition to the CDC, the HHS secretary supervises the heads of the Food and Medicines Administration, the National Health Institutes and the Medicare and Medicaid service centers.
Kennedy initially run for president last year as a Democrat before launching an independent campaign. He finally dropped his offer and supported Trump, taking his message “Make America Healthy Again” on the campaign path.
Kennedy's call to examine more closely the chemicals in the food of the nation brought the support of both parties. But his past activism against vaccines and his advance of false theories that they are linked to autism prevented him from winning any democratic support.
“When you continue sowing doubts about established science, it makes us impossible to advance,” said Maggie Hassan, Dn.H., Kennedy in an emotional statement at a committee hearing last month. “So that is the problem here, it is the relief and rehas and the continuum of sowing doubts so that we cannot move forward. And it freezes us in its place.”
