02.04.25

Cantwell Votes NO On Advancing RFK Jr.’s Nomination for HHS Secretary

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, at a meeting of the Senate Committee on Finance, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) voted no on advancing the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

“I wanted to vote for Mr. Kennedy in the context of my family's history. My dad stood behind his father the night his father gave the famous speech. I told him in my office, in my family, the Kennedy’s stood up. But when he answered Senator Cassidy's question, and he couldn't even give him the answer -- that yes, the data is there to support vaccines today -- I don't need any more data, all of a sudden.”

Sen. Cantwell continued: “I need someone at HHS who is going to say, we are going to be a leader in medical technology, science, vaccines, we are going to fight foreign powers, we are going to be there to provide global health. And I don't want a recalcitrant. I need a leader. And that is why I'm voting no,” said Sen. Cantwell.

The speech Sen. Cantwell referenced was on the night of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, when Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr. spoke in Indianapolis and delivered the tragic news to attendees. Her father, Paul Cantwell, was standing just behind the late Senator during that speech. Today, the Kennedy-King National Commemorative Site near the site of the speech honors both Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy.   

Last week, Sen. Cantwell grilled Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his nomination hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on his anti-science and anti-vaccine views, and his promise to cut 600 employees from the National Institutes of Health:

“I represent a very big innovation state – innovation in health care, specifically. Innovation like NIH funding to the Fred Hutch Cancer Center that helped develop the HPV vaccine, which has the potential to eliminate over 95% of cervical cancer. NIH also funds a lot of jobs and grants – nearly 11,000 people in the State of Washington and over $1.2 billion worth grants,” Sen. Cantwell said last week during the nomination hearing. “I definitely am troubled by the medical research side of innovation, and some of the things that you have said. In fact, this issue about laying off 600 employees at NIH.”

Video of Sen. Cantwell’s Q&A with RFK Jr. during last week’s nomination hearing is available HERE; audio is HERE; and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell’s questioning is available HERE. Our full press release on the nomination hearing is available HERE.

For decades, Sen. Cantwell has remained a staunch supporter of medical innovation and evidence-based science, including treatments for fentanyl addiction, abortion, vaccinations, stem cell research, and more.

Video of Sen. Cantwell’s remarks during today’s Finance Committee markup is available HERE, audio HERE, and transcript HERE.

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