The Senate Finance Committee has advanced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, a sprawling federal bureaucracy with 80,000 workers and a $1.6 trillion budget. Senators voted 14 to 13 along party lines to recommend RFK Jr.'s confirmation in the full Senate, despite his long history of promoting public health conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine disinformation. Among Republicans voting “yes” was Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who spent decades promoting vaccinations for children.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has advanced the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence on a party-line vote of 9 to 8, with all the committee’s Republicans in support.