RFK Jr. Is One of Trump's Most Controversial Nominees, but When Will He Be Confirmed?

RFK Jr.'s confirmation is still up in the air as he begins his hearings.

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Published Jan. 29 2025, 10:14 a.m. ET

RFK Jr. on Capitol Hill in December.
Source: Mega

Of the cabinet officials that Donald Trump has left to confirm, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might be the most controversial. Trump's pick to the secretary of Health and Human Services is going to face a battle over his confirmation thanks both to his personal history and his very public anti-vaccine crusade.

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As his first confirmation hearing gets underway, many want to better understand the timeline for his potential confirmation. Here's what we know.

RFK Jr. looks up during a visit to Capitol Hill. https://x.com/Mike_Pence/status/1884435002848387249
Source: Mega
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When will RFK Jr. be confirmed?

RFK Jr.'s first confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled for Jan. 29, and we don't know when a confirmation vote on the Senate floor might be scheduled afterward. If he makes it through the hearing with his prospects intact, a vote on his confirmation could come as soon as next week. What seems clear, though, is that his confirmation is going to be contentious.

On the eve of his first confirmation hearing his cousin Caroline Kennedy wrote a harsh letter in which she urged the Senate to reject his nomination. In the letter, she described him as a "predator" who perpetrated a “perverse scene of despair and violence," placing baby chicks in a blender to feed to his hawk. She continued by suggesting that he had enticed other people in his family into addiction, and by attacking his vaccine crusade.

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“Bobby is addicted to attention and power,” she wrote. “Bobby preys on the desperation of parents of sick children — vaccinating his own kids while building a following by hypocritically discouraging other parents from vaccinating theirs.”

Caroline's call was echoed by 15,000 physicians who signed a letter saying that Kennedy should not be appointed.

“RFK Jr. is not only unqualified to lead this essential agency — he is actively dangerous.”

Source: Twitter/@Mike_Pence
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When will the Senate vote on RFK?

Jan. 29 is the first of two days of hearings that RFK will face. The question of when he might be confirmed likely depends on how those hearings go, and whether Senate Republicans, who are ultimately the people responsible for his confirmation, will have the 50 votes required to see his nomination through. A vote is only likely to be scheduled in the Senate if the Republican votes are there, as it seems unlikely that he will receive much Democratic support.

RFK, who ran in 2024 as a third-party candidate before dropping out and endorsing Trump, has a long history of advocating against vaccination, claiming without any evidence that vaccines can lead to autism.

As the head of HHS, he would oversee the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and several other crucial federal health organizations.

Given his stance on vaccination, as well as his ever-shifting position on abortion, Senate Democrats are likely to pose tough questions about whether he is actually qualified for the role he has been nominated for. Ultimately, though, the question will be how many Republicans are willing to confirm him regardless of whether they think he is qualified.

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