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Kennedy To Meet With Republicans On Key Committees

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead HHS, will meet with several Republican members of key Senate committees this week.

Kennedy will meet with 25 senators, including incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Kennedy spokesperson told POLITICO Sunday night.

“Mr. Kennedy is immensely prepared to meet with over 2 dozen Senators this week. He is energized, he is excited to talk about President Trump’s vision to make America healthy again,” the spokesperson said.

POLITICO reported on Tuesday that Kennedy had scheduled meetings for this week with members of the Senate Finance and HELP committees.

Why it matters: Trump has promised to let Kennedy “go wild” on health and food policy in his administration soon after Kennedy dropped his presidential bid to endorse the now-president-elect, roiling many public health experts. Though Republicans will have an edge in the Senate during confirmation, it will take only four defectors to sink Kennedy’s nomination if Democrats oppose him in unison.

Several Republicans are expected to ask Kennedy about his views on vaccines. Kennedy’s debunked views questioning the safety of a number of vaccines have alarmed public health experts who fear his rhetoric could lead to deaths from preventable diseases.

Some Senate Republicans have not been as enthusiastic about Kennedy's nomination as they have been for some of Trump’s other cabinet picks, and several key GOP senators have been noncommittal.

Kennedy would need to be confirmed by the Senate Finance Committee. He’d also likely have a courtesy confirmation hearing with the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee without a formal vote.

Most of the senators Kennedy is slated to meet with this week are expected to be relatively open to him, with a few exceptions. Kennedy is expected to have more meetings in the new year. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told POLITICO last week he wouldn’t meet with Kennedy until January.

Several other key senators don’t have meetings with Kennedy next week, including some who have nodded to the importance of vaccine programs, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn (R-Texas).

He is slated to meet with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who has signaled concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stances and what they could mean for childhood vaccination.

And he's set to meet with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who introduced legislation in 2018 backing water fluoridation. Kennedy has signaled he’d push to end fluoridation of public water.

He’ll also meet with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who faces reelection in 2026 and whose state party censured him in 2023 for being insufficiently conservative in their view on certain policy issues.

Here’s the full list of Republican senators, according to a Kennedy spokesperson:

Sen. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.)

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.)

Sen. James Lankford (Okla.)

Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.)

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune

Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.)

Sen. Katie Britt (Ala.)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.)

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (Okla.)

Sen. Mike Crapo (Idaho)