HIGH PRESSURE CAMPAIGN — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) faced increasing pressure this weekend from supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to support his nomination to head the government’s health agencies, I report with POLITICO’s Daniel Payne. Why it matters: Cassidy may have the vote that decides whether the Finance Committee recommends Kennedy’s approval. According to Fox News, Kennedy and Cassidy spoke on Sunday after the lawmaker said during the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing last week the two might need to talk this weekend. Conservative activists, members of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement and at least one House member are calling out Cassidy, who said last week he was on the fence. “RFK is going to run HHS whether you like it or not,” another Louisiana Republican, Rep. Clay Higgins, posted on X. “We’re saving the country and RFK is part of the formula. So, vote your conscience Senator, or don’t. Either way, We’re watching,” he added. Conservative activist Scott Presler, who promotes the false narrative that former President Joe Biden didn’t win the 2020 election, urged Cassidy on social media to support Kennedy. “If Senator Cassidy (R-LA) doesn’t vote to confirm RFK Jr., it will be a career ender. I say that peacefully,” Presler wrote on X. KENNEDY UPDATES DISCLOSURES — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. amended his federal disclosure forms Saturday to state that any proceeds stemming from a case against an HPV vaccine maker would go to a nondependent, adult family member, according to a copy of his correspondence obtained by POLITICO. However, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) remains concerned that Kennedy, who’s nominated for HHS secretary, is still financially entangled with vaccine-related lawsuits. In a letter to the Office of Government Ethics on Feb. 1, Kennedy wrote that he’d “irrevocably assign [his] right to receive payment in all outstanding contingency fee cases” that don’t involve the U.S. to a nondependent, adult family member. Kennedy initially stood to collect 10 percent of any fees awarded in the lawsuit over Merck's HPV vaccine through a referral arrangement with the law firm Wisner Baum. Warren, who first pressed Kennedy on his financial ties to pharma litigation Wednesday, wrote in a letter sent to him on Sunday and shared with POLITICO that Kennedy’s responses are “inadequate.” She points out that Kennedy told the Senate Finance Committee he would divest his interests to his adult son but told the OGE on Saturday his interests would go to a nondependent adult family member. She added that this would mean a direct family member might stand to gain from Kennedy’s role as HHS secretary. It’s unclear which of Kennedy's four sons would receive the fees owed to him. One of his sons works for Wisner Baum. The letter asks Kennedy for additional information on his arrangements with Wisner-Baum and further commitment that he’ll divest his financial interests. The Senate Finance Committee, which Warren sits on, will vote on whether to recommend Kennedy’s confirmation on Tuesday. TOP REPUBLICAN QUESTIONS PEPFAR FUNDING — Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned why the U.S. foots the bill for drugs against HIV and AIDS for 20 million people across Africa when many of their countries work directly with U.S. adversaries like China, Carmen reports. “We need to be asking the question: Should they be weaning off of this? Should we be paying it for these very expensive HIV and AIDS drugs? Should the American worker be footing the bill for that?” Mast told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. Why it matters: Mast, whose committee is in charge of the program funding HIV drugs — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which former Republican President George W. Bush created in 2003 — is the first top Republican to openly question America’s continued support for HIV treatment in Africa. His comments came in the context of the foreign-aid freeze the Trump administration implemented more than a week ago, which has wreaked havoc among people benefiting from PEPFAR and other U.S. global health programs worldwide. Secretary of State Marco Rubio granted a waiver to continue lifesaving aid on Tuesday. But it took until Saturday for the State Department to disclose the parts of PEPFAR the waiver would cover in a memo obtained by POLITICO. Those include “life-saving HIV care and services, inclusive of HIV testing and counseling,” services to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to their children and “reasonable” administrative costs that are “strictly necessary to deliver and provide oversight of this assistance,” Jeff Graham, the State Department official in charge of PEPFAR, wrote in the memo.
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