Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary now appear to be showing buyer’s remorse, raising objections to health nominees tied to his orbit amid growing unease over Kennedy’s approach to federal health policy.
President Donald Trump’s pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, has yet to gain enough votes for confirmation in the Senate, amid bipartisan resistance as lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle press Means on her views on vaccines. While the surgeon general does not set policy unilaterally, the post carries significant influence over public‑health messaging, advisory committees, and the administration’s credibility on issues like vaccination.
At the same time, the administration has yet to name a new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Wednesday marked the 210th day since the agency last had a confirmed director—the legal limit for how long an acting official may serve in the role. The White House’s first choice withdrew after he determined he lacked the votes, and officials are concerned about a messy confirmation battle, according to The Washington Post.
Taken together, the stalled nomination and leadership vacuum suggest a broader reluctance in the Senate to advance nominees perceived as closely aligned with Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) agenda—even as Republicans stop short of directly challenging the health secretary himself.
MAHA is Kennedy’s effort to reshape federal health policy around chronic disease, nutrition, and environmental exposures, often clashing with public‑health orthodoxies, particularly around vaccines.
Kennedy, whose skepticism of vaccines is well documented, was narrowly confirmed after offering assurances to wary senators. These included pledges to preserve recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and not to alter public CDC statements on vaccines and autism. Subsequent actions have strained those assurances.
In June last year, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the ACIP panel, and appointed eight new members, including some known to have skeptical views on vaccines, and the CDC website—while keeping “Vaccines do not cause Autism” as a headline—now adds an asterisk next to that and states: “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.”
Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician who was the deciding vote on advancing Kennedy’s nomination out of committee, flagged his concerns at the time, saying that while the health secretary’s picks for ACIP “have scientific credentials, many do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology.”
He added that any decisions should be “delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation—as required by law,” and also warned that there was no CDC director in place to “approve the panel’s recommendations.”
More recently, Cassidy has publicly rebuked Kennedy over his claims about mRNA COVID‑19 vaccines, saying the secretary’s move to reduce funding for mRNA research “works against” the administration’s stated goal of improving public health.
The administration pushed back on the suggestion that Kennedy’s approach has alienated Senate Republicans.
“Secretary Kennedy is focused on delivering results for the American people, not political theater, and continues to deliver on President Trump’s mission to Make America Healthy Again,” a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson told Newsweek.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Newsweek that “millions of Americans voted for President Trump because of his pledge to Make America Healthy Again.”
He added that the administration has been “working closely with Congress on this presidential priority, from confirming Dr. Means as our next surgeon general to advancing other MAHA agenda policies.”
Newsweek contacted Cassidy’s office for comment via email.
Cassidy’s frustration appears to reflect a broader feeling within the GOP conference—not open rebellion against Kennedy, but growing resistance to advancing nominees associated with him.
“They hate RFK. They hate him,” Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), told The Wall Street Journal of some of his committee colleagues, suggesting the perceived animosity was behind Means’ stalled nomination.
And in an appearance on YouTube channel MAHA Action, fellow Republican HELP Committee member Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky described Means as a “MAHA advocate” and said her confirmation was being held up by Cassidy, Murkowski and Collins. He urged MAHA supporters to call the three senators and get them to reconsider.
Newsweek emailed Tuberville and the HELP Committee via email for comment.
Most Republican committee members support Means’ confirmation, according to Politico. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, however, have made their hesitations known. Murkowski told CNN that she’s “not enthusiastic about her,” and Collins said she was still reviewing Means’ submitted questions.
Cassidy, Murkowski and Collins are considered some of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate. David Lewis, a professor of both political science and leadership, policy, and organizations at Vanderbilt University, told Newsweek that nominees can “sometimes sway moderate senators if they commit to certain policies or actions while in office.”
However, he said that this “requires trust,” and if that trust is “broken, moderate members are less likely to go along.”
If even one Republican defects while Democrats remain opposed, Means’ nomination would fail, illustrating how Senate Republicans can constrain Kennedy’s agenda without directly revisiting his own confirmation.
Lewis added that senators with backgrounds in medicine or science often “have a hard time stomaching nominees with fewer qualifications or extreme views.”
The result is a confirmation process that is increasingly shaping how the administration governs. With key health posts unfilled, agencies remain in limbo, demonstrating how Kennedy’s contentious confirmation continues to reverberate through the Senate long after his swearing‑in.
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