by Paul Bean

Today, President Trump’s pick for Head of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will appear before the Senate Finance Committee for a hearing on his confirmation to the Federal position.  He’ll do so with the support of dozens of Vermont farmers and physicians who agree with his call for healthier food and medical practices. And likely without the support of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a committee member.

Yesterday, Farmer/attorney/activist/erstwhile political candidate John Klar of Brookfield sent Senate Finance a petition signed by more than 100 farmers, including many of them organic farmers from Vermont, backing Kennedy for his emphasis on healthy nutrition.

“Under President Trump’s direction, Kennedy will reform America’s food system by taking strong action against ultra-processed foods and harmful food additives. Food safety, nutrition, and public health will be at the forefront of his efforts to ensure foods are safe, wholesome, and properly labeled,” Klar said.

Dr. Victoria Dubin-Master, who coordinated the Kennedy campaign in Vermont, signed on to a similar letter of support by physicians.

Senate Finance will have the final say on whether his nomination to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services moves forward to the full Senate. To be confirmed, he will need the support of a majority of Senators, as the position oversees all of America’s federal health agencies.

Many media groups are reporting that Robert Kennedy Jr. is a controversial pick because of his views on vaccines and various other modern medical practices.

• CBS: “Many Democrats, nonprofits, and health experts have also blasted Kennedy over his record of misleading and unfounded health claims,”
• NPR: “The prospect of his confirmation has resulted in opposition from many people in the medical field, who cite his history of promoting inaccurate claims on vaccines, infectious diseases, and other areas of medical science.” 
• The Hill: ‘He’ll go down’: RFK Jr. nomination won’t pass Senate, O’Reilly says

Kennedy’s spin on MAGA is “MAHA,” Make America Healthy Again. “Make America Healthy Again PAC (MAHA) is igniting a health revolution in America,” says the official MAHA website.  “We aim to dismantle the corporate stranglehold on our government agencies that has led to widespread chronic disease, environmental degradation, and rampant public distrust.”

Kennedy ran as an independent candidate for President of the United States. Following the Republican National Convention and the nomination of Donald Trump, in late August, RFK jr withdrew from the race and then endorsed Donald Trump saying: “For 19 years, I spent 30 minutes praying every day when I got out of bed, and my prayer was I asked God to put me in a position where I could end the chronic disease epidemic, and bring health back to our children. In August God sent me Donald Trump.”

In Vermont, Kennedy received support from independent voters looking for a change. On July 31, Team Kennedy Vermont delivered their signed petitions to officially get Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the November General Election ballot in Vermont for President. 

Some Vermonters are supportive of his appointment and are hoping for his confirmation. “Bobby Kennedy is not a threat to our nation’s health; he is our rescuer from an unhealthy industrial agriculture, food, and pharmaceutical hegemony that has been sickening us and our children and grandchildren for decades while destroying rural farms and polluting our soils and waters,” writes Klar on his substack. “If we do not secure his appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services this week, no one in our nation can undertake this mighty task with the same devotion, ability, and integrity.”

“RFK jr. has the experience, know how, desire and strength to make our population heathier through cleaner food, water, soil, air and health care practices. As our country gets sicker and spends more on health care, we demand that we change the trajectory of our state and our population before it’s too late,” writes Dubin-Master, a former team captain for the RFK jr campaign in Vermont. “Have you seen this petition for Doctors to sign on the Kennedy Beacon? If you are a Doctor or Scientist please sign and pass on to your colleagues and if you have a doctor or friend that hasn’t signed it yet, please share this to them. 

Robert Kennedy has not strayed from controversial issues and neither have his supporters, including his pick for Vice President, Nicole Shanahan. Shanahan, a California native, married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2018; they separated in 2021 and divorced in 2023. She has addressed a number of controversial issues as an outspoken critic of vaccines and California’s land management and treatment of the environment. “‘Chemtrails’ are tagged as a conspiracy theory, but ‘geoengineering, weather modification, atmospheric manipulation, etc’ are the terms used in practice. Using the colloquial word ‘chemtrails’ triggers gaslighting,’” write’s Nicole Shanahan, on her X page last Friday, linking an article from a Vermont-based anti-geoengineering organization, Our Geoengineering Age: “Here’s a published paper in 2018 called ‘California Wildfires: Role of Undisclosed Atmospheric Manipulation and Geoengineering.’”

At this moment, RFK jr’s appointment is up in the air. In Vermont, it does seem that both Senators are unwilling to throw their support behind him, but that remains to be seen. 

“I think what he’s saying about the food industry is exactly correct. I think you have a food industry concerned about their profits and could care less about the health of the American people. I think they have to be taken on,” Bernie Sanders told CBS back in early December. 

Last week, a video posted on X showed Senator Sanders in front of a panel of doctors and medical experts who gave their opinion on RFK’s appointment. “I think the point of what we’re trying to do today is make it clear that we potentially face a massive health hazard, maybe especially for our children,” said Sanders in the video. “Back in 1900, 18% of kids didn’t make it to five? That’s just an enormous reality that has to be addressed…we have made enormous progress in public health and saving children’s lives. What I am hearing from all of you is that it is in danger and we might revert back to those terrible days when so many children died at the young age of one or two or three.”

If RFK is confirmed in his appointed position, he would oversee the following organizations and a handful more:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
• National Institutes of Health (NIH):
• HHS also oversees the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces civil rights laws, HIPAA, and other laws. 
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) – Administers the nation’s major healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) – Provides health services to underserved populations, including funding for community health centers and health workforce training.
• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) – Works on the nation’s response to public health emergencies, including natural disasters and pandemics.

These agencies are responsible for a wide array of functions that affect the health and well-being of Americans across various sectors, from healthcare and medical research to social services and public health. The author is a writer/researcher for the Vermont-based anti-geoengineering organization, Our Geoengineering Age

Since then, Senator Sanders has released the following statement:

Sanders Opening Statement in Hearing to Consider RFK Jr. Nomination

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP), today delivered an opening statement at the committee’s hearing on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched here.

“Thank you, Senator Cassidy. And Mr. Kennedy, thank you for being with us. 

I will discuss later the issue of vaccines, which Senator Cassidy raised, and is of concern I think for all of us. But before I go there, I wanted to congratulate you for the phrase “Make America Healthy Again.” I think that is a cry that all of us – a goal that all of us share – because, as you have indicated, we are a very unhealthy society.

We are the richest country in the history of the world, but we rank far below every other major country in terms of our life expectancy. That’s outrageous. To me, equally outrageous is that, if you are working class in this country, you are going to live six or seven years shorter than if you are rich. In America today, 68,000 people die every year because they can’t afford to get to a doctor. 

Unbelievably, in this country, hundreds of thousands of people deal with cancer, struggling for their lives. You know what happens to them? They go bankrupt. They deplete their life’s savings. 

In other words, when we talk about making America healthy, we’ve got to talk about our broken, corrupt health care system. 

Your uncle, President Kennedy, and your father, Bobby Kennedy, a great senator from New York, both did the right thing. They said that health care is a human right. I’m not sure how we can move to making America healthy again unless we have the guts to take on the insurance companies and the drug companies and guarantee health care to all people. I’ll be asking you a question about that. 

Lowering the cost of prescription drugs. How do you make America healthy again if one out of four people in this country cannot afford the price of prescription drugs, which is far higher in America than any other country on Earth? 

Under President Biden, we made some progress and this committee played an active role in having Medicare begin, for the first time, negotiating the price of prescription drugs. And I’m going to ask you today whether or not President Trump will follow what we accomplished here. 

We are the only major country on earth not to guarantee paid family and medical leave. Mr. Kennedy, there are women today who are having babies and are forced to return to work in a week or two because they have no guaranteed paid family and medical leave. How do you have a healthy country when Americans get fired because they stay home taking care of their sick kids? That’s not making America healthy again. 

If you are working 50 to 60 hours a week making 13, 14 bucks an hour, can you be healthy? Will you join those of us who think that, in the United States, the wealthiest country in the world, people that work 40 hours a week should not live in poverty? We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage. 

Lastly, President Trump believes that climate change is a hoax. I happen to believe, most Americans believe and virtually the entire scientific community believes that it is an existential threat to this planet. I don’t know how you are going to make America healthy again or keep the world healthy when you have massive heat waves, droughts, floods and extreme weather disturbances. That’s not keeping America healthy. Now, that is not within the jurisdiction of HHS, but I surely hope that you will, if confirmed, demand that President Trump change his position and work with those of us who are trying to transform our energy system and keep America healthy by addressing the crisis of climate change.”