This week, our friend Senator Bill Cassidy faced a difficult choice as the deciding vote on whether to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the nation’s health agencies. As the decision loomed, he was so inundated with messages from both sides that his Senate website crashed.
Senator Cassidy was conflicted for good reason. A doctor before entering public service and a longtime advocate for vaccines, he does not like Kennedy’s vaccine skepticism. But he also believes Kennedy has many good ideas, such as on food safety.
Ultimately, he did what any good problem solver does: he worked to make a deal. Senator Cassidy met repeatedly with Kennedy and the White House and demanded multiple concessions in exchange for his vote—most notably that they will protect the public health benefit of vaccinations.
Here is a partial list of the concessions he secured:
- Kennedy and Cassidy will have an unprecedentedly close, collaborative working relationship if he is confirmed, including meeting multiple times a month.
- Cassidy will provide input into hiring decisions at Health and Human Services (HHS) to ensure all sides of the conversations around vaccines and healthcare are present.
- Kennedy will work within current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems.
- If confirmed, Kennedy will maintain the recommendations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes.
- CDC will not remove statements on its website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.
- Kennedy and the administration committed to respecting the role of Congress and not attempting to subvert existing laws passed by Congress.
- Cassidy may choose a representative on any board or commission formed to review vaccine safety.
- HHS will provide a 30-day notice to Cassidy’s committee if the agency seeks to make changes to any federal vaccine safety monitoring programs and the committee will have the option to call a hearing to further review.
Regardless of how you feel about Kennedy’s nomination, we should all be able to respect the thoughtfulness and leadership Senator Cassidy showed in making his choice. In a town that loves to grandstand and obstruct, he chose to negotiate and shape the outcome for the better.
No Labels does not subject our allies to litmus or purity tests. What we ask is that they think independently, for the long term, and work to shape policy in a way that serves the commonsense majority. That is what Senator Cassidy did this week.
Kennedy still faces a vote in the full Senate, but if confirmed, America can rest easier knowing Senator Cassidy is helping to shape this new era of American health leadership.
Dan Webb
No Labels Board
