WASHINGTON — Five months after Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy invited Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear before the powerful health committee he chairs, the hearing has not happened, and the senator continues to say there is no date set for it to take place.
Cassidy, a Louisiana doctor who is supportive of vaccines, publicly requested Kennedy testify before the Senate Health Committee on Sept. 18 for an oversight hearing to “share his side of the story” after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez was abruptly ousted from her job. Monarez’s lawyers said at the time that she was fired for refusing to “rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”
In a September press release Cassidy wrote that, in the spirit of President Trump’s mandate for “radical transparency in government,” he would use his committee to conduct “oversight” of “recent high-profile departures from the agency,” including Monarez’s. The hearing would aim at “giving Americans the full picture so they can judge for themselves.”
Since that invitation, Cassidy has repeatedly said that a date for the hearing is being “worked out.”
Cassidy was the key vote in getting Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, into his role as HHS secretary. The senator openly expressed concerns about Kennedy, particularly his vaccine skepticism, and said he was “struggling” with the decision. But ultimately Cassidy supported him after Kennedy made several promises, including to meet with Cassidy “regularly” and appear before the health committee he chairs “on a quarterly basis, if requested.”
Asked about the status of the hearing on Thursday, Cassidy told NBC News, “I just don’t follow that. I know it’s happening. I know it’s working. Believe me, obviously there’s the appearance of delay, but that’s not what I’m focused on,” and said to check with his staff.
The same day, a member of Cassidy’s staff told NBC News they had “no update” on if or when the hearing would occur. Meanwhile, multiple other Cabinet members have appeared for oversight hearings already this year.
A spokesperson for Kennedy told NBC News in a statement: “Secretary Kennedy continues to follow through on his commitments to Chairman Cassidy and engages with him and his staff on a regular and frequent basis. As part of those commitments, HHS accepted Chairman Cassidy’s numerous recommendations for key roles at the agency, retained particular language on the CDC website, and adopted ACIP’s recommendations. Secretary Kennedy talks to the chairman at a regular clip.”
Cassidy’s repeated public clashes and initial hesitation to support Kennedy have become a focal point of his re-election campaign, as he faces a Trump-endorsed primary challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La.
Before his confirmation, Kennedy had also assured Cassidy he would maintain the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) without changes. Yet, in June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the ACIP and replaced them with members of his own choosing, including several known vaccine skeptics. Cassidy immediately called for the next ACIP meeting to be postponed until the panel gained “more robust and balanced representation.” The meeting went ahead as scheduled.
Kennedy had also promised Cassidy that he would not remove statements on the CDC’s website that vaccines do not cause autism. The site was rewritten in November to suggest, without evidence, that health authorities “ignored” possible links between the shots and autism. It maintained the statement that “vaccines do not cause autism,” but with an asterisk pointed directly at Cassidy, saying it had been left there “due to an agreement with the chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.”
Cassidy was quick to denounce the revamped website and has been critical of Kennedy’s overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule and the secretary’s skepticism of the Covid vaccine. Though Kennedy has not taken up Cassidy on his invitation to testify before his health committee, the Louisiana Republican did get a chance to grill him on his vaccine stance, Covid and CDC turmoil in a September oversight hearing in the Senate Finance Committee.
Kennedy testified before Cassidy’s panel once before, in May last year, where Cassidy said Kennedy had “lived up to” his promises and largely avoided the issue of vaccines.
Kennedy ally Tony Lyons is supporting Cassidy’s primary challenger and pledged $1 million through his “Make America Healthy Again PAC” to help Letlow defeat him before she even entered the race.
“MAHA is all in for LETLOW!,” the congresswoman posted on social media Tuesday.
In a memo obtained by NBC News sent to congressional Republican leadership and fundraisers, Lyons shared new polling and argued that Republicans need to embrace the MAHA agenda to increase their chances of winning in the 2026 midterm elections.
“Republicans who have failed to embrace the gift of the MAGA movement have had their political careers meet an untimely demise,” Lyons wrote.
The memo was first obtained by Politico.
