ROBERT F. Kennedy Jr. has cleared the first crucial vote in his quest to helm the Department of Health and Human Services.

Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee voted together to approve Kennedy‘s nomination on Tuesday, while Democrats voted against the controversial environmental lawyer’s confirmation.

All 14 Republicans on the committee, including Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who was undecided on Kennedy’s nomination, voted yes.

During his confirmation hearing on January 29, Cassidy grilled Kennedy, saying his past “undermining confidence in vaccines with unfound or misleading arguments” concerned him.

However, before casting his vote, Cassidy said he had several “intense conversations” with Kennedy and the White House over the weekend and on the eve of the committee’s vote.

Cassidy teased he would align with his Republican constitutes to ensure Kennedy’s confirmation.

“I want to thank VP JD specifically for his honest counsel,” Cassidy, a physician, said in a statement on X.

“With the serious commitments I’ve received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issue we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes.”

‘AUTHORITARIAN TAKEOVER’

Meanwhile, all 13 Democrats opposed the vote.

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the committee, agreed that the healthcare status quo needs changing, but argued Kennedy is the wrong choice.

“Mr. Kennedy has given us no reason to believe he will be anything other than a rubber stamp for plans to cut Medicaid and rip health care away from the American people, and be a yes man if ordered by Musk or Trump to take an illegal action,” Wyden, a senator of Oregon, said.

Wyden warned how Americans how witnessed an “authoritarian takeover” of the government by Elon Musk and President Trump.

“To Mr. Kennedy, and why I believe he is singuarily unfit to serve as HHS secretary, I’d like to say this, the last several days we’ve witnessed an authoritarian takeover of our federal government by Elon Musk and Trump,” he said.

“They have set their sights on a full purge of anyone in government that doesn’t bend the knee and follow their orders.”

Wyden warned that putting Kennedy in charge of the HHS would be “deadly” to children.

“Mr. Kennedy was given ample authority on a bipartisan basis to recant his decades-long career peddling anti-vaccine conspiracies,” he added.

“Instead, he spent his time with us, dodging and weaving, and gave no indication that if confirmed as HHS secretary, he would stand by the long-settled science surrounding routine vaccinations.

“Peddling these conspiracy theories as the nation’s chief health officer is going to be deadly for kids across the country.”

Moments before the committee’s vote, President Trump pushed for Kennedy’s nomination saying the country “needs Bobby.”

“20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“Now it’s 1 in 34. Wow! Something’s really wrong. We need Bobby!!! Thank you! DJT.”

Kennedy has repeatedly linked vaccines to autism, a claim that has been repeatedly debunked by hundreds of scientific studies over the decades.

His confirmation will now move to the Senate floor, where all 100 senators will have the chance to vote on the nomination.