Some Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services questioned the appointee’s leadership ability on Wednesday, after a tumultuous month at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kennedy is set to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, his first appearance before the panel. The hearing was announced before he fired CDC Director Susan Monarez and other highly placed public health officials resigned in solidarity last month.
“It has not increased confidence in the institution of public health, the chaos that he’s created,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Wednesday of the health secretary’s personnel decisions. “They need to get their business straight.”
When asked further questions, the senator pointed to remarks from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who sits on the Senate Finance Committee. Thune’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions, but the majority leader told Politico he plans to ask Kennedy some “hard questions” during Thursday’s hearing, and that he is disappointed the health secretary fired a Senate-confirmed official after just a month.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a member of Senate Finance, bemoaned the lack of transparency at the CDC and said the secretary needs to provide more information on who is making decisions at the agency in the wake of Monarez’s ousting.
Cassidy cast the pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy, who, in return, pledged to maintain existing vaccine approvals and safety systems. But in the months since his confirmation, Cassidy has criticized Kennedy’s decision to fire all members of a vaccine advisory panel and replace them with partisan allies.
“Who’s making scientific decisions at the CDC now? Because that should be an open process,” Cassidy said when asked what questions he’ll have for the secretary.
Despite his concerns, Cassidy said, “the secretary should have the opportunity to speak.”
Still, Kennedy continues to have many Senate Republican supporters.
“I fully support what he and President Trump are doing trying to restore integrity and credibility to the federal health agencies,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Wednesday.
Senate Finance Committee member Roger Marshall, R-Kan., threw his weight behind Kennedy, telling reporters he agrees there needs to be a major paradigm shift at the agency.
“The people that quit or were fired were not fulfilling the mission that President Trump intended. Look, he selected Bobby Kennedy Jr. for this job because he’s a disrupter,” Marshall said. “I think it’s time for a new day. I think there’s time for a big turnaround in CDC.”
Demand for ouster
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services Department employees called on Congress to demand Kennedy’s resignation on Wednesday.
Citing the oath they took as civil servants to uphold the Constitution, the HHS employees said it was their duty to speak out.
“Should he decline to resign, we call upon the President and U.S. Congress to appoint a new Secretary of Health and Human Services, one whose qualifications and experience ensure that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science. We expect those in leadership to act when the health of Americans is at stake,” they wrote.
The HHS letter doesn’t include the employees’ names, which were provided only to members of Congress for privacy reasons.
While employees at other agencies have criticized actions taken by directors, it is unusual for government employees to collectively call for an official’s resignation.
The administration has placed some federal workers on leave for such acts, including signatories of a letter criticizing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and a separate letter to Congress from almost 200 Federal Emergency Management Agency workers.
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