Sen. John Cornyn. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
HHS Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will likely face a wide-ranging set of questions at his confirmation hearings that go beyond his controversial ideas about vaccines.
Why it matters: Senate Republicans tell Axios they have concerns about his past support for abortion rights and on regulating farms and food.
But for all the controversy surrounding the nomination, Kennedy remains an unknown quantity to many senators.
- Many said they have not yet spoken to him. There is also some deference to President-elect Trump's nominees.
- Trump could afford to lose only four GOP votes to sink the nomination, assuming all Democrats oppose him — which itself is unclear.
Between the lines: Trump's first-term FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, added his voice to the debate last week, saying he had "deep concerns" about Kennedy's intentions.
- Kennedy's vaccine views could lead to "epidemics of diseases that have long been vanquished," Gottlieb said.
What they're saying: Some key Republican senators gave previews of what they'll ask when Kennedy comes before the Finance and HELP committees, in a pair of confirmation hearings.
John Cornyn (Finance member): "I think there's just a lot of confusion about his position on vaccines. And no offense, but I read a lot of different statements and I don't really know what the facts are, so I'll be asking him about that."
James Lankford (Finance member): "We'll talk a lot about the life issues, where he stands.
- "I'll have a lot of questions for him about 'Here's what was done in the first Trump administration. Is this what you're planning to do in the second administration. What does that look like?'"
Bill Cassidy (incoming HELP chair and Finance member): "Right now I'm just keeping an open mind because it's so easy to let people be defined by the press, and that's just not my responsibility. My responsibility is to kind of go in and do my research, if you will."
- He said he had not spoken to Kennedy since his nomination.
John Boozman (Ag committee top Republican): "I've just read what everybody else has read, and that's all over the place. It depends on who you read. I look forward to having a good discussion."
Roger Marshall (HELP member): "I'm not going to comment on him until I sit down with him and have met him in person."
Chuck Grassley (Finance member): "[I want to ask] if he understands that [we are] producing 204 bushels of corn per acre, all as a result of genetic modification, compared to 50 bushels of corn per acre when I started out in 1960 farming.
- "How are you going to feed 9 billion people if you're only producing 50 bushels of corn on the acre?"
