Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she plans to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump's controversial nominee for health and human services secretary.
The signal of support from Collins — a Republican viewed as a potential swing vote — appears to move Kennedy a crucial step closer to Senate confirmation. Maine independent Sen. Angus King has not yet announced his position on RFK Jr.
Kennedy's nomination has been controversial because of his longstanding activism questioning the safety of vaccines and his leadership of an organization, Children's Health Defense, which has been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation. Prior to his formal nomination to Trump's Cabinet, Kennedy also said he would slash jobs and potentially eliminate entire departments in the federal health bureaucracy.
Collins said Kennedy assured her that he believes the polio vaccine is effective and that he would not restrict access to it. She also pointed to Kennedy's pledge to support research into a Lyme disease vaccine. She said she was also satisfied with his response to her concerns about cuts to National Institutes of Health funding that she said could be disastrous to biomedical research.
And Collins said that fellow Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is a physician, assured her that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold regular oversight hearings on RFK Jr.'s actions. Cassidy is committee chairman and Collins serves on the committee.
"Based on all of that, I reached the decision to vote for him," Collins said in an interview on Tuesday.
Those explanations are unlikely to sit well with many in Maine's medical community. however.
More than 180 Maine doctors co-signed a letter endorsed by roughly 22,000 physicians nationwide that called Kennedy unqualified to lead such an important department and "actively dangerous" to public health.
"This appointment is an affront to the principles of public health, the tireless dedication of medical professionals, and the trust that millions of Americans place in the healthcare system," reads the letter organized by the Committee to Protect Health Care, an Illinois-based nonprofit. "RFK Jr. has a well-documented history of spreading dangerous disinformation on vaccines and public health interventions, leaving vulnerable communities unprotected and placing millions of lives at risk. His appointment is a direct threat to the safety of our patients and the public at large.
Critics point to Kennedy's decades of vocal skepticism about vaccines and his repeated suggestions that vaccines can cause autism — a claim that medical professionals say has been debunked. Kennedy's opponents also point to past statements from Kennedy that he would target funding for infectious diseases and drug development.
Collins said she had spoken with health care professionals as recently as Tuesday morning about the nomination.
"I understand their concerns," Collins said. "They work very hard to protect the public's health. I have also heard from a number of constituents who support RFK Jr.'s nomination. So it's not a monolith."
Toby McGrath, director of the Maine affiliate of the left-leaning health care advocacy group Protect Our Care, criticized unnamed Senate Republicans for raising concerns about the Trump administration's funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health while supporting Kennedy. Protect Our Care aired television ads targeting Collins and seven other Republican senators on Kennedy's nomination.
“If Republicans were truly concerned about Donald Trump’s NIH cuts, then they would not be lining up to confirm RFK Jr., the architect of the plan to gut NIH funding," McGrath said. "The same Republican senators who are speaking out against NIH cuts are happily backing RFK Jr. to lead America’s health care system despite his promises to defund NIH, stop all research on drug development and infectious disease, and fire and prosecute NIH employees."
But Collins has said the Trump administration's plans to slash "indirect costs" to biomedical research facilities — costs that help pay for laboratories, infrastructure and other expenditures — could have a devastating impact on facilities in Maine like Jackson Laboratories, MDI Laboratory and university-affiliated research programs.
Collins said she spoke with Kennedy about the issue on Monday.
"And he assured me that as soon as he is confirmed, he will reexamine that order," Collins said.
Collins said she traditionally gives broad discretion to presidents for their Cabinet picks, having voted against only about 10 of the nearly 200 nominees that have come before her as a senator.
"In general, I give deference to presidents to build their own team, whether they are Democratic presidents or Republican presidents," Collins said.
Collins voted against Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense but has supported the other dozen Trump Cabinet nominees that have reached the Senate floor so far. King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has voted against five of the 13 nominees to date.
