Shares in vaccine and processed food companies falling
Wed 3:04 am +00:00, 5 Feb 2025 5RFK Jr. Wins Crucial Vote, Moves One Step Closer to Top HHS Post
The Senate is expected to vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary later this week or early next week. The nomination “is likely to succeed absent any last-minute vote switches,” The Associated Press reported.
The Senate Finance Committee today narrowly advanced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
The 14-13 vote along party lines came after Kennedy secured the vote of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that oversees HHS. Cassidy was the lone Republican considered to be a possible hold-out.
The Senate is expected to vote on Kennedy’s confirmation later this week or early next week, ABC News reported. The nomination “is likely to succeed absent any last-minute vote switches,” The Associated Press reported.
Kennedy, founder and former chairman of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), can be confirmed even if up to three Republican senators and all Democrats vote against him in the full Senate.
If confirmed, Kennedy will oversee a $1.8 billion budget and 90,000 employees. HHS oversees 13 public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
During today’s committee meeting, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said, “It is time to put a disruptor” like Kennedy at the helm of the HHS. “I hope he goes wild,” Tillis said.
Shares of vaccine manufacturers and packaged food companies, including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech, Novavax, Kraft Heinz, General Mills, Mondelez and Hershey, dropped after today’s vote, Reuters reported.
CHD CEO Mary Holland welcomed today’s outcome. She said:
“CHD is delighted that the Finance Committee is sending RFK Jr.’s nomination to the full Senate. Given the 2024 presidential results, this seems only fitting. ‘Make America Healthy Again’ has become a worldwide rallying cry, and CHD is proud to be a foundational part of this movement.”
In a statement, Dr. Joseph Varon, president and chief medical officer of the Independent Medical Alliance, also welcomed today’s vote. He said:
“Americans demand a frank conversation about the state of our government healthcare agencies, and we’re very grateful for the Senators who responded by voting to move RFK Jr.’s nomination to the full Senate.
“RFK Jr. has been asking the tough questions, and he’s been unmoved in the face of big-corporate money campaigns against him.”
In a statement before the vote, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chair of the committee, said that if confirmed, Kennedy “will have the opportunity to deliver much-needed change to our nation’s healthcare system.”
Cassidy, Kennedy agree to ‘unprecedently close collaborative relationship’
During last week’s hearing in the Senate Finance Committee, Cassidy said he was “struggling” with some of Kennedy’s positions regarding vaccines.
“I’ve had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning,” Cassidy posted on X earlier today. “I want to thank VP JD [Vance] specifically for his honest counsel. With 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, I will vote yes.”
Following today’s vote, Cassidy delivered remarks on the Senate floor, revealing the content of those discussions and the agreement he made with Kennedy to secure his vote.
He said Kennedy committed to a strong public health role for Congress and to meeting or speaking with Cassidy multiple times per month. They also agreed that Cassidy will participate in the hiring process for HHS and the public health agencies it oversees.
“He and I will have an unprecedently close collaborative relationship,” Cassidy said, noting that the hiring decisions that will follow “will allow us to represent all sides of those folks who have contacted me over this past weekend.”
Kennedy also agreed to maintain statements on the CDC website that vaccines do not cause autism and to maintain the recommendations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Cassidy said he would also reject any attempt to remove the public’s access to “life-saving vaccines” without “iron-clad, causational scientific evidence” indicating otherwise. He also said he would carefully monitor any attempt to “wrongfully sow public confusion” about vaccines.
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Cassidy conceded that “many mothers do need reassurance that the vaccine their child is receiving is necessary, effective, and most of all, safe” and expressed his support for Kennedy’s positions on toxic foods and reforming the NIH.
“These commitments, and my expectation that we can have a great working relationship to Make America Healthy Again, is the basis of my support,” Cassidy said, noting that institutions like NIH and FDA require “reform.”
During last week’s confirmation hearings, Kennedy emphasized his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda and said he would work to tackle the chronic disease epidemic in the U.S.
Kennedy also said he would implement “radical transparency” in HHS. He also voiced support for vaccines — if backed by “good science.”
Watch today’s vote here:
Related articles in The Defender
- Kennedy Calls for ‘Radical Transparency’ at Government Health Agencies, as Sanders Demands CHD Stop Selling Onesies
- RFK Jr. Pushes Back on Chronic Disease, Autism and Agency Corruption
- ‘True Corruption’: Agency Capture Responsible for Chronic Disease Epidemic in U.S.
- ‘An Act of War’: Big Food Intentionally Addicting Kids to Toxic Foods
- Breaking: RFK Jr. Suspends Presidential Campaign, Will Join Forces With Trump to ‘Save Millions of Children’
To me the US system is strange. Surely if the President is in control of the country, he can appoint whomever he pleases. That seems to be how other countries work.
The cinema of the hearings plus the waste of money so that senators can shout out bile (which they may not be able to do at home), is a total yawn.
The President is NOT in control of the country
He has no significant authority over the Federal Reserve. Congress however does have that authority. It is the equivalent to the freeholder of a property that the tenant rents. The Fed is the tenant in this analogy
See here:
https://tapnewswire.com/2025/02/05/announcing-new-series-the-war-for-bankocracy-gonna-be-a-doozy/
He also shows that in ALL other countries in the world then, the elected politicians have ZERO control over their Central Bank, none whatsoever
That’s what “Central Bank Independence” means
Which shows you just who is really in power across the planet
Yes I know, Pete, but how come the UK PM, for example, can appoint people to be ministers, without their having to go through any confirmation process?
It’s a good question
The PM can apparently “form” a government on his own without oversight. Other than maybe inside his own party, in private
Which means that he can appoint rogues, thieves and vagabonds as he sees fit. Just look at some of his current cabinet, it’s a rogues galley, merit doesn’t seem to come into it
For example the insufferably stupid, David Lammy, our not-exalted-at-all, Foreign Secretary. See his Mastemind appearance to know just how stupid that he is
He’s not even really British, both his parents are from Guyana. But he was at school here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_(The_Cathedral)_School
And he subsequently went to study law at London Uni, was called to the bar in 1994 then, to Harvard for his Masters. Then smoothly into politics, London Assembly then Parliament
How on earth did he manage all that with his limited intellect? He’s clearly a made man of some sort, red flags all over his life story to my mind. Merit doesn’t come into it
There is such a dearth of decent people going into politics, mostly those who have never done a day’s work in their lives, that people like Lammy are perhaps the best they can do.
The days of politicians like Eric Heffer and Dennis Skinner and many others have gone. These people made some daft decisions but at least they had worked outside Westminster and had a better idea of what voters wanted.