RFK, Jr. agreement with Sen. Cassidy: Bobby's boxed in, but there's still hope

Last Tuesday, in an unusual move, Sen. Bill Cassidy — the anti-Trump Republican senator from Louisiana — took to the Senate floor to explain why he’d voted “yes” in committee to approve Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to become Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

“Regarding vaccines, Mr. Kennedy has been insistent that he just wants good science and to ensure safety,” said Cassidy. “But on this topic, the science is good. The science is credible. Vaccines save lives. They are safe. They do not cause autism. There are multiple studies that show this. They are a crucial part of our nation’s public health response.”

He said he’d talked with Kennedy “multiple times” over the weekend and that Kennedy and the Trump administration had reached out to reassure him on the topic of vaccines. And what came out of those conversations, he said, was an agreement that there would be a “strong role” for Congress in the administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Specifically, he said, they had agreed on the following:

1. An “unprecedentedly close working relationship” with Kennedy and Cassidy meeting or speaking “several times a month.”

2. Cassidy gets input on hiring decisions at HHS beyond Senate-confirmed positions.

3. Kennedy will work within the current vaccine approval and monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems.

4. Kennedy will maintain the recommendations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices “without changes.”

5. The CDC will not remove statements on its website that say vaccines do not cause autism.

6. No “subversive techniques” like “sue and settle” without going through Congress.

7. Kennedy is to come before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (the “Health committee”) on a quarterly basis if requested.

8. The Health committee chair — Sen. Cassidy or his successor — may choose one representative on any board or committee established to review vaccine safety.

9. Kennedy will give a 30-day notice to the Health committee if he wants to make changes to any vaccine safety monitoring program (VAERS, Vaccine Safety Data Link, V-Safe)

In a post on X that same day, Cassidy wrote that Vice President JD Vance was involved in the conversations that resulted in this agreement.

Clearly, there was no other way.

In order for Kennedy to be confirmed, he had to make these concessions on the issue of vaccines. And while it can be said that Cabinet nominees often make promises to senators to win their support that they have no intention of keeping, it seems unlikely that Kennedy is that sort of man. And President Trump will do doubt need the vote of Sen. Cassidy on a number of issues given that Republicans only have a three-seat majority in the U.S. Senate and at least three of those senators — Collins, McConnell and Murkowski — are unreliable.

So Kennedy is likely to abide by the terms of this agreement, more or less.

But some of the terms are unacceptable and probably unconstitutional, such as the one that allows Cassidy input on hiring decisions at HHS beyond Senate-confirmed positions.

A member of Congress has no right to say who is to be hired or not at federal agencies beyond those positions that require Senate confirmation. Hiring at federal agencies is entirely the prerogative of the executive branch and such an agreement seems a clear violation of the Separation of Powers. It’s disturbing to think of Kennedy having to essentially ask Cassidy’s “permission” to hire every political appointee he wants to hire.

And it’s disturbing that a U.S. senator has been given the authority to dictate what is on the web page of a state agency.

It doesn’t seem likely that either of these terms of the agreement would be considered constitutional if brought before a federal court.

But even if they were….even if Kennedy, as Secretary of the HHS, abides by every one of the terms of this agreement, there is still a great deal that he will be able to do on the issue of vaccines.

I’ve come up with some of those things. Maybe you’ll think of a few more:

What he can do:

1. Change out the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (CDC) and the Vaccines and Related Biologics Advisory Committee (FDA). These are the two committees made up of outside doctors and scientists who meet, hear evidence and make recommendations on approval of new vaccines.

2. Release all information to the public related to vaccine safety studies.

3. Release to the public all email and text correspondence involving employees of the CDC, FDA or NIH related to concerns about vaccine safety.

4. Send out press releases announcing the total amount paid out by the Vaccine Court every month and every year and post those to the HHS homepage and the homepages of the CDC and FDA.

5. Livestream hearings held before the Vaccine Court and post links to recordings on the websites.

6. Fire people.

7. Transfer people — Senior Executive Service employees — the highest-paid bureaucrats — can be transferred to a satellite office in any state and must go. Or they can submit their resignation.

8. Order investigations of all suspected vaccine deaths. Begin by reaching out to families and interviewing them. Interviews to be recorded and maintained as investigatory records.

9. Order autopsies for all suspected vaccine deaths, including special pathology tests to test for vaccine damage.

10. Ban pharmaceutical advertising on television. (Pharmaceutical advertising amounts to 70 percent of all TV advertising in non-election years!)

11. Do large-scale studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children, while controlling for other variables.

12. Order an investigation into the increase in all-cause mortality that followed the introduction of the Covid vaccines, in particular in younger people (children and non-elderly adults) who were at no or low risk of death from Covid.

13. Order an investigation into the Covid vaccine — the trials, the process by which the vaccines were approved and vaccine injuries.

14. Order an investigation into the efficacy of vaccine safety surveillance systems (VAERS and the Vaccine Safety Data Link). How well are they working??

15. CDC media relations — Radical transparency! Take and return all calls; answer all reasonable questions promptly and thoroughly; give access to smaller and independent media; hold frequent press calls; make vaccine experts available for interviews. Release everything!

16. Schedule listening sessions on vaccine injuries and deaths for CDC and FDA employees to travel from state-to-state and hear testimony from those who believe they were injured by a vaccine or lost a family member to a vaccine. Record these sessions and post links to the HHS-CDC-FDA homepages.