According to a source familiar, among Kennedy’s planned meetings is one with GOP health staff on the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). It’s a customary precursor to his meeting with the panel’s incoming chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
Kennedy will also meet with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), among others.
Kennedy will get a confirmation hearing in the HELP Committee, but the Finance Committee will hold the official vote. Many GOP senators have said they hadn’t heard from Kennedy since his nomination and looked forward to speaking with him.
Kennedy is among Trump’s most controversial nominees and presents a significant test of GOP loyalties. If every Democrat opposes him, Republicans can only lose three votes.
Kennedy, who ran for president as a Democrat last year before switching to an independent and later dropping out and endorsing Trump, is a prominent environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic who has promoted the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism.
He is likely to face intense questions about vaccines, public health and abortion, as well as his views on food and agriculture policy.
Part of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement focuses on chronic illness over infectious diseases and fights against chemicals and additives in food. Kennedy also said he wants to eliminate fluoride from the nation’s water supply.
Kennedy founded and continued to be paid by Children’s Health Defense, one of the most prominent anti-vaccine groups.
