Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Testifies at His Senate Finance Confirmation Hearing, Jan. 29, 2025
January 29, 2025 · CBS News · 3:36:25
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
The Senate Finance Committee held the first confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, on January 29, 2025, carried in full by CBS News. The committee — chaired by Sen. Mike Crapo, with Sen. Ron Wyden as ranking member — is the committee of jurisdiction that votes to advance the HHS nomination. Per CBS News’s description, Kennedy faced pushback on his views regarding vaccines and abortion. The Senate confirmed Kennedy on February 13, 2025, by a vote of 52–48, as this site’s chronicle records.
Why it matters
This hearing is the founding document of Kennedy’s tenure: the commitments he stated to the committee that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and HHS financing are the baseline his record as Secretary is measured against on this site.
Scoreboard watch
Scoreboard candidate: the commitments Kennedy stated at his January 29, 2025 Senate Finance confirmation hearing, each as stated at the hearing, to be checked against his conduct in office — flagged for the scoreboard editors; the entry itself remains review-gated.
Sources: Senate Finance Committee, confirmation hearing on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, January 29, 2025 (full hearing as carried by CBS News, embedded above; the Wall Street Journal’s carry of the same hearing is recorded as an alternate source in the site index).
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