Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Capitol Hill again today to makes his sales pitch to senators, whose votes he's looking for. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
RFK JR. IS JUST ASKING — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spent years railing against vaccines and sowing doubt about their safety as well as bashing pesticides, ultra-processed and genetically modified foods, is just a “person with questions.”
That’s how some Republican lawmakers he’s met with recently are describing him as he attempts to win the votes of Senate Republicans and Democrats who will decide whether he leads HHS.
“He’s not anti-vaccine,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn , who sits on the Finance Committee, told reporters following his meeting with Kennedy on Thursday. The committee will likely hold a confirmation hearing in the coming weeks. “He is pro-vaccine safety, which strikes me as a rational position to take.”
Other Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who met with Kennedy late last year, have said Kennedy is merely looking to follow the science and improve data on vaccines.
“What he wants with vaccines, which is what I believe in, is transparency,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in December.
Scott’s show of support came despite the years Kennedy spent spreading misinformation about vaccines, including falsely linking them to autism, and chairing the anti-vaccine group, the Children’s Health Defense.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has signaled openness to Kennedy and met with him on Thursday but declined to say whether Kennedy’s position on vaccines might be disqualifying.
“I absolutely believe in vaccinations,” Fetterman said. “I would never argue against [vaccines].” He didn’t say whether he’d vote for Kennedy.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, a longtime advocate of farm interests, told reporters Kennedy’s views on farming and food production are “much more reasonable than I expected,” even though Kennedy has criticized the use of genetically modified plants and pesticides in the past.
“The reports I read didn’t reflect what he actually believes and how he will act in those areas,” Grassley said.
Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) said he had a “good meeting” with Kennedy during which they spoke about Kennedy’s views on pesticides.
Boozman added that Kennedy would merely try to discourage consumption of ultra-processed foods, not seek to ban ingredients or manufacturing processes.
Not everyone has been convinced — and opponents say that, even if Kennedy doesn’t try to pull vaccine approvals, he can still sow doubt over their safety.
On Thursday, the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physicians’ advocacy group, released an open letter signed by more than 15,000 doctors calling Kennedy, who’s long questioned public health consensus about the importance of vaccination, “dangerous.”
Republicans have mostly backed Kennedy, and he can win confirmation if 50 of the 53 GOP senators vote for him.
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In Congress
Helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. navigate Congress is Ken Nahigian, who knows his way around the chambers. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
SCOOP: MEET KENNEDY’S GUIDE TO CONGRESS — A Trump transition savant is helping to guide Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial pick to lead HHS — through the Senate confirmation process, Chelsea, Robert and POLITICO’s Marcia Brown, Daniel Payne and Grace Yarrow report.
Ken Nahigian, who led the Trump transition in 2017, is Kennedy’s liaison to senators, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Nahigian knows the Senate well. He worked for the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee under then-Chairs John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). He cut his teeth in politics working for longtime Kansas Sen. Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.
Nahigian is executive vice president for policy and communications at the communications shop Nahigian Strategies.
He once lobbied for health care interests, including for the Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals and the Coalition for Access Now, which promotes cannabidiol, a marijuana derivative, for medical purposes.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw is proposing a House select committee to help fight Mexican drug cartels. | Jose Luis Magana/AP
A COMMITTEE TO FIGHT THE CARTELS — Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) wants House Speaker Mike Johnson to set up a select committee to work on legislation to fight Mexican drug cartels but hasn’t been able to get Johnson to commit to it yet.
“Trump’s team likes it; a lot of chairmen who would have jurisdiction over this stuff like it and told the speaker; this is a no-brainer,” Crenshaw told POLITICO’s Carmen Paun.
A former Navy SEAL, Crenshaw led a task force in the last Congress on combating the cartels, where he found many government agencies working on the issue but no central coordination. A select committee would enable him and other members to hire staff to work on the problem.
Why it matters: Crenshaw has long advocated taking a more forceful approach against drug cartels in Mexico that produce and traffic illicit fentanyl into the U.S., where the drug drove a record number of overdose deaths during the pandemic.
While fatal drug overdoses have gone down over the past year, Crenshaw said the interest in fighting the cartel remains.
“People want to go to war with the cartels,” he said.
PUSH FOR MEDICAID SPENDING CAPS — New House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said a cap on federal Medicaid spending is needed to control the budget, Robert reports.
Guthrie wants to tackle changing how the federal government pays states for Medicaid, which now is open-ended. He is exploring a per capita allotment that caps spending after a certain amount, with the overall cap growing with the rate of medical inflation.
“The overall thing for me is we have a 1.8 trillion budget deficit. It isn’t sustainable,” said Guthrie. “It’s not cutting the program. We want to make it sustainable. Eventually, it is going to crash if we don’t fix this.”
Republicans are exploring one of several packages to be considered under reconciliation, a procedural tool that lets budget-related legislation get through the Senate via a simple majority. Some lawmakers have eyed Medicaid reform as a potential pay-for.
“They are looking for any pay-fors they can find,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), referring to leadership.
But Guthrie acknowledged that discussions on any reform package are in the embryonic stage.
“We have to get our budget under control, and we have to do it responsibly, and Medicaid is one that I want to tackle,” he said. “We will see where the will of the conference is.”
Names in the News
Cornerstone Government Affairs is adding Dianne Nellor and Ashley Palmer to its federal government relations team. Nellor most recently was clerk/staff director on the Senate Appropriations Agriculture-FDA Subcommittee. Palmer was a professional staff member on the Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee.
