was sworn in Thursday as President Donald Trump鈥檚 health secretary after a close Senate vote, putting the prominent in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, , and , as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.
Nearly all Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy鈥檚 views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America鈥檚 most storied political鈥攁nd Democratic鈥攆amilies to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Democrats unanimously opposed Kennedy.
, who had polio as a child, was the only 鈥渘o鈥� vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence.
鈥淚鈥檓 a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I鈥檝e watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world,鈥� McConnell said in a statement afterward. 鈥淚 will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles.鈥�
The rest of the GOP, however, has embraced Kennedy鈥檚 vision with a directive for the nation鈥檚 public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got to get into the business of making America healthy again,鈥� said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, adding that Kennedy will bring a 鈥渇resh perspective鈥� to the office.
Kennedy鈥攋oined by his wife, other family members, and several members of Congress鈥攚as sworn in Thursday afternoon in the Oval Office by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, hours after confirmation. He said he鈥檇 first been there in 1961, and told stories of seeing his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, there as a child.
Trump announced that Kennedy will lead a new commission on making America healthy again, and Kennedy said Trump has been a blessing in his life and will be for the country, calling him a 鈥減ivotal historical figure.鈥�
Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines.
His audience only grew , when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them.
With Trump鈥檚 backing, Kennedy insisted he was 鈥渦niquely positioned鈥� to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.
Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he hoped Kennedy 鈥済oes wild鈥� in reining in health care costs and improving Americans鈥� health. But before agreeing to support Kennedy, potential holdout , R-La., a doctor who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations.
During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to deny a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Some lawmakers also raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers.
Kennedy made more than $850,000 last year from an arrangement referring clients to a law firm that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. If confirmed as health secretary, he promised to reroute fees collected from the arrangement to his son.
Kennedy will take over the agency in the midst of a massive federal government shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off鈥攅ven if temporarily鈥攂illions of taxpayer dollars in public health funding and left thousands of federal workers unsure about their jobs.
On Friday, it would cap billions of dollars in medical research given to universities and cancer being used to develop treatments for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer鈥檚.
Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul at the NIH, FDA, and CDC. Last year, he promised to fire 600 employees at the NIH, the nation鈥檚 largest funder of biomedical research.
