What to Expect from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Confirmation Hearings

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face questioning by Senators from both parties on Wednesday and Thursday, in one of the most anticipated confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s Administration.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees many of the country’s health agencies, from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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His nomination is already stirring fierce debate on both sides of the political aisle. Kennedy, 71, is one of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet nominees. Known for his anti-vaccine views, Kennedy has sparked backlash and outrage from the science and medical communities for spreading disinformation. In addition to repeating the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism—despite years of research proving that vaccines are both safe and effective—he has also accused the FDA of “aggressive suppression” of raw milk (the FDA warns that raw milk can have harmful bacteria, such as E. coli and listeria, that can lead to illness and even death). Kennedy has also said he would stop the safe and years-long practice of adding fluoride to the water supply, which, while done to protect oral health, Kennedy claims is tied to issues like IQ loss and bone cancer.

Perhaps one area where Kennedy may be able to find bipartisan support is on his goals for food and nutrition. Kennedy, who initially ran as an independent in the 2024 presidential election before endorsing Trump, has promoted a plan to “Make America Healthy Again,” promising to “ban the hundreds of food additives and chemicals that other countries have already prohibited” and saying that he would “change regulations, research topics, and subsidies to reduce the dominance of ultra-processed food.”

But while some health experts have been encouraged by Kennedy’s pledge to address this issue, most are alarmed and appalled that Kennedy is being considered to lead HHS.

“We shouldn’t even be having this discussion,” says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who has served on CDC and FDA vaccine advisory committees. “So how do I hope [the hearing] goes? The way I hope this goes is that he was never considered.”

Kennedy can only afford to lose three Senate Republican votes if Democrats unanimously oppose his nomination. It’s currently unclear whether any Republicans will vote against him.

TIME spoke with public health experts and lawmakers about the biggest issues likely to arise in the hearings this week.

Vaccines and viruses

Public health experts agree that Kennedy’s false claims about vaccines will be a major focus of the hearings. While Kennedy has said that he and the Trump Administration wouldn’t remove vaccines from the market, he has, for years, spread misinformation about them. In addition to promoting the debunked claim that vaccines are linked to autism, Kennedy falsely labeled the COVID-19 vaccine “the deadliest vaccine ever made,” even though data has proven and health experts have said that COVID-19 vaccines are both safe and effective. In 2021, he filed a petition with the FDA, requesting that the agency revoke its emergency-use authorizations for the COVID-19 vaccines.

“The hospitals were overwhelmed with that virus,” Offit says. “Our ICU was flooded, and here this man stands up and says, ‘I think that you should remove your authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine.’ I mean, that [vaccine] was a godsend. That was our way out of this pandemic.”

“Let’s imagine that there was a bird flu pandemic—how would he handle that? Since he doesn’t believe in vaccines, which, by the way, is not a belief system—it’s an evidence-based system,” Offit says.

Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, says he hopes the Senate committees “dig down” on vaccinations—not just asking Kennedy if he would ban certain vaccines, but more specific questions, like: would Kennedy appoint scientists with vaccine research expertise to the CDC vaccine advisory committee? Would he follow or undermine CDC recommendations for childhood vaccination schedules? When he says that he wants to make vaccine research more transparent, what would that look like?

Kennedy has also suggested that AIDS may not be caused by HIV, despite overwhelming scientific evidence establishing the link between the two.

Food and nutrition

Kennedy has gained some support for his stance on food and nutrition. Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, acknowledges Kennedy’s controversial statements on vaccines and fluoride in water, but says he hopes that Kennedy’s more contentious comments “may have been partially [or] purposefully inflammatory to raise attention,” and hopes that Kennedy will follow “the evidence and the science” and focus on the issue of nutrition.

“There’s broad consensus across the country, across the political spectrum, that our food is making us sick, and that we haven’t been paying nearly enough attention to this,” Mozaffarian says. “RFK Jr. has appropriately highlighted this is a true national crisis requiring urgent attention.”

Gostin also anticipates that Kennedy’s comments on food will come up during the hearings, but says he hopes that Senators drill in on their line of questioning. “For me, again, I would ask the hard questions. It’s easy to say, ‘Well, I want to take out toxins and dyes from food,’” Gostin says. “What policies does he really want to put forward, and what is he prepared to do to fight for them?”

Income and debt

Kennedy’s financial disclosures could also be a point of discussion during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. Recent financial disclosure forms filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics reveal that he reported up to $1.2 million in credit card debt, along with mortgages that could total up to $10.5 million.

Kennedy’s income, however, paints a different picture. Over the past two years, he reported earnings exceeding $12 million, with a significant portion of that coming from his law firm, Kennedy & Madonna LLP, which recently rebranded to Madonna & Madonna LLP. Despite his mounting liabilities, he continued to earn substantial income from referral fees, including nearly $9 million from legal cases. His ongoing involvement in the law firm, particularly cases involving vaccine manufacturers, has prompted Kennedy to vow to sever ties with the firm if confirmed to avoid potential conflicts of interest.

What are lawmakers saying?

Kennedy’s path to HHS rests with the Republican-controlled Senate, which holds a razor-thin majority. Senators from both parties have been vocal about their concerns, focusing on his past views on vaccines, food safety, and abortion.

Some Republicans are demanding that Kennedy clarify his past support for abortion rights, given that he would play a key role in shaping the Trump Administration’s abortion policies if confirmed. Former Vice President Mike Pence, a staunch opponent of abortion, is lobbying against Kennedy’s nomination. Kennedy, like Trump, has flip-flopped on the issue, previously saying he would support a federal ban on abortion after the first trimester of pregnancy, before backtracking and saying that abortion should be legal up until a certain point.

Meanwhile, Democrats have questioned Kennedy’s qualifications for the role based on his past statements and unorthodox view of medicine. Democratic lawmakers told TIME that Kennedy’s position on vaccines is a dealbreaker. Asked if anything could change his mind on Kennedy’s nomination, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, said: “Well, if he were to say I was totally misguided and mistaken on my criticism of vaccines.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that he “cannot recall a nominee more dangerous to the health of Americans than Mr. Kennedy.”

“He is neither a doctor, neuroscientist nor a public health expert, nor a policy expert of any kind,” he said. “When I met with him, he would not answer many questions directly, saying he would defer to the president, who also is hardly a leader… Nobody should believe this 11th hour conversion of Mr. Kennedy on vaccines.”

Several Democrats declined to say how they will vote on Kennedy. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who previously said he agreed with some of Kennedy’s positions on food policy—particularly his criticism of how the food industry prioritizes profits over public health—told reporters Monday that he will be tracking the hearings closely this week and confirmed that he spoke with Kennedy about his past debunked claim that vaccines can cause autism.

What are public health experts saying?

Gostin hopes that, in addition to asking Kennedy about his controversial statements, Senators also question him about the Trump Administration’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, which has drawn sharp criticism from public health experts.

Senators may question Kennedy about abortion but Gostin says any line of questioning on the issue will likely be “predictable,” since he expects that Kennedy will repeat Trump’s view that abortion policy should be left up to the states.

While some public health experts are uneasy about how the hearings will go, they hope that Senators across the aisle will grill Kennedy on his controversial claims.

“For me, the headline should be: do you believe in science, and will HHS policies and guidelines be based on evidence and solely scientific evidence?” Gostin says. “And then secondarily, just under that is: will you rely on career scientists at U.S. public health agencies? Will you rely on their judgment and their research?”

“This is the head of HHS—we shouldn’t have to force the head of HHS to embrace science and evidence and the public health mission of the agency,” Gostin says.