HHS nominee RFK Jr. testifies at Senate confirmation hearing

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., perhaps the most contentious Cabinet-level nomination for the second Trump administration, was the center of combative and tense testimony today before the Senate Finance Committee in his bid to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. It took mere minutes into the hearing for Kennedy to feel the heat from aggressive and pointed criticism about his track record and to be told that “he should not be entrusted with the health and well-being of the American people.”

RFK Jr. has long stood against mainstream nutrition research and been combative against vaccine science, and he is known for opposing modern agriculture practices — particularly concerning pesticide use, GMOs, and labeling — and has repeatedly advocated against large-scale producers. Because the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are housed within HHS, the leader of this agency has commanding influence over the agricultural sector, as well as fundamental health.

“I have a personal commitment and a long history of working with farmers,” Kennedy said to counter some of his the criticism coming his way. “I want to make sure that I understand the very narrow margins that the American farmers and ranchers are dealing with, and I don’t want under my watch for a single farmers to have to leave for economic or for regulatory or bureaucratic reasons if I serve.”

From the onset, Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) proved to be one of Kennedy’s biggest antagonists.

“He has made it his life’s work to sow doubt and discourage parents from getting life-saving vaccines. It has been lucrative for him,” Wyden said in his opening remarks. “It’s a slippery tactic to dodge responsibility, which is, in my view absurd for someone who is trying to win confirmation for a job that is entirely about making recommendations. These recommendations are going to have life or death consequences for these people.”

Kennedy opened by stating his position about chronic disease and health care spending. “A healthy person has 1,000 dreams, a sick person has only one,” the nominee said. “Today, over half of our country is chronically ill. … Our country will sink beneath a sea of desperation of debt, if we can’t answer the question of why our healthcare is so high in the first place. Our answer is chronic disease.”

He added that reports calling him “anti-vaccine” are wrong just as at least one audience member in the chamber shouted “You lie!” in response. Throughout the hearings, several senators challenged Kennedy on his past criticisms of vaccines and the anti-vaccination stances of the Children’s Health Defense organization that he founded.

While much of the focus is on health specifically, the whole of his agricultural impact can not be ignored. For example, Kennedy pushed back when Sen. Michael Bennet from Colorado highlighted a previous statement of Kennedy’s in which the nominee claimed that “pesticides cause kids to become transgender.” In the wake of Kennedy’s denial, Bennet submitted Kennedy’s previous statement into the hearing record.

And since RFK Jr.’s nomination in early November, stakeholders in agriculture — as well as within his own family — have raised alarm bells loudly and frequently.

One columnist said in a November piece that RFK Jr. poses an “absolute danger” to agriculture, largely because he has backed a long list of conspiracy and fringe theories, which he would likely intertwine with the food and agricultural space (such as his false claims that the “mass-spraying of glyphosate on wheat” has been the root of celiac disease and gluten allergies in recent years). Kennedy, who made his career as an environmental lawyer, is also a stringent raw milk advocate and has voiced skepticism about the polio and measles vaccines.

This week, Farm Journal published the results of its Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor survey, which asked whether RFK Jr. would be a positive choice for U.S. agriculture. A decisive 90 percent of ag economists surveyed said, “No.” 

Earlier this month in a letter to senators, the right-leaning Breakthrough Institute said, “By hamstringing technological advances and crucial inputs key to the maintenance of U.S. agricultural abundance and global competitiveness, he will make life harder for agricultural producers, decrease food production, and increase food prices for American consumers.”

“I expect you to leave agriculture practice and regulations to the proper agencies, and for the most part that’s the USDA and EPA,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, referring to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“In my advocacy, I’ve often disturbed the status quo by asking uncomfortable questions,” the nominee said. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”

He went on to say, “It is a spiritual issue, and it is a moral issue. We cannot do our role as a moral authority around the world, and we are writing off an entire generation of kids.”



During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump adopted Kennedy as an ally and expressed a desire to “let Kennedy go wild” on health and food policies. Many are concerned that this untethered freedom could create substantial regulatory disruptions for American agriculture.

Despite the fact that there is widespread fear that he would cut funding for vital health programs in a way that would impact even those under state control, the nominee does have some support, with a small handful of groups and outlets calling him “beneficial to agriculture.” Thom Tillis, a senator from North Carolina, included into the record a stack of signed support letters for Kennedy. 

After defending himself as being pro-safety in the health industry, Kennedy noted, “Nor am I the enemy of American farmers. America’s producers are the bedrock of American culture and national security. I was a 4-H kid and I spent my summer working on ranches. I want to work with our farmers and food producers to remove burdensome regulations and unleash American ingenuity. I cannot succeed without a full partnership of American farmers.”

Sen. Steve Daines of Montana sought assurances from Kennedy that he would work collaboratively with partners at the USDA and other federal agencies, as well as Montana farmers and ranchers, before enacting “any policy that might affect or impact food supply.” At another point, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma noted that he spoke with RFK Jr. about row crops and other ag issues in private leading up to the hearing and was satisfied with the nominee’s responses, but those discussions were not laid out during the hearing.

Yet the criticisms during the hearing and in the days leading up to it have largely overshadowed the praise. Just a day before the hearing, in a harsh letter released to lawmakers, RFK Jr.’s cousin, former U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, called the nominee unfit for the HHS job and a “predator.”

Building on that idea, in one instance, Wyden said to the nominee, “You have spent years pushing conflicting stories about vaccines. You say one thing, and then you say another. In your testimony today under oath, you denied that you are anti-vaccine, but during a podcast interview, you said ‘no vaccine is safe and effective.’ You said, ‘You would do anything, pay anything to go back in time and not vaccinate your kids.’ Are you lying to congress today when you say that you are pro-vaccine, or did you lie on the podcast?”

Senate Finance Committee members Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) joined Wyden in giving opening statements.

“Regardless of political party, everyone in this room recognizes that our current situation has fallen short,” Crapo said.

“Committee staff have examined thousands of pages of statements, books, and podcast statements,” Wyden followed. “The receipts show that Mr. Kennedy has embraced conspiracy theories, quacks, charlatans, especially when it comes to the safety and efficacy of vaccines.”

There were multiple audience disruptions during the Senate Finance Committee hearing, with the chairman threatening to call the police if order was not maintained. People in COVID-19 masks were ushered out during one disruption.

This is not the only hearing that RFK Jr. will have to go through. He is scheduled to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at 10 a.m. ET Thursday.