It’s now official. RFK Jr. just been nominated by president elect trump to fill the role of Health and Human Service Secretary. Here is Trump’s post about it on his social media channel which says Kennedy will make America great and healthy again.
But the fact remains Robert Kennedy Junior has had some very controversial opinions about vaccines and food and has made no secret that he has a general distain for the federal systems this country has built over decades and decades that govern these things. His opinions are not just about eating a More healthy diet or reducing childhood obesity levels. His positions go way farther than that.
And all those opinions whether you agree with them or not are very important in this discussion. Because if confirmed – which I’ll talk about in a second – as secretary of health and human services his opinions and thoughts will dictate the safety of all of our food, will dictate vaccines for adults and for your children, will dictate whether certain new or existing drugs are safe and effective and can be use and will dictate how the United States responds to any type of health emergency.
The Health and Human Services secretary oversees a lot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the (CDC), Food and Drug Administration, the (FDA), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services among others.
Now – like all cabinet members – RFK Jr. is going to have to be confirmed by the Senate. That means he will have to sit through confirmation hearings, a floor debate and most importantly will have to get a majority of senators to vote yes to allow him to hold this job.
The reality is — the Senate usually rubber stamps these cabinet members – but when a candidate is controversial things may change. And there have been cabinet nominees that don’t make it through the confirmation process for a whole host of reasons. That happened under Obama, Clinton, Bush and yes – it happened to Trump in his first term…
And that could be why this second time around — Trump has said he wants the Senate to go around the normal confirmation process. Instead — he wants to use what are called recess appointments. Recess appointments are constitutionally allowed. The constitution says if the Senate is adjourned, the president can temporarily appoint these cabinet members without the normal senate confirmation process. Those recess appointments would only last until the end of that congressional term which – in this case — would be 2026. It’s also worth noting in a unanimous 2014 decision the supreme court limited the power of the president to fill cabinet positions through recess appointments.
Whether the senate actually goes along with this and adjourns so that trump can appoint his cabinet picks is yet to be seen.
