*

Republican-led Senate Finance Committee advances Kennedy

to full

Senate vote

*

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said conversations with

Kennedy,

Vance influenced his 'yes' vote

*

Kennedy must win support of at least 50 senators to be

confirmed

(Recasts lead paragraph to add deal between Kennedy, Cassidy;

updates throughout)

By Ahmed Aboulenein and Stephanie Kelly

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,

President Donald Trump's pick for health secretary, moved closer

to securing the top health job on Tuesday after winning a senior

Republican senator's backing with pledges to protect existing

vaccination programs.

Kennedy made the pledges to Senator Bill Cassidy, a

member of the Republican-led Senate Finance Committee that voted

on Tuesday to advance Kennedy's nomination to a full Senate vote

as soon as this week.

The panel voted 14-13 along party lines with Democrats

having accused Kennedy over two days of contentious confirmation

hearings of being financially vested in the anti-vaccine

movement and peddling conspiracy theories to sow doubt about

lifesaving medicines - assertions Kennedy rejected.

Cassidy, who also chairs the Health, Education, Labor,

and Pensions Committee, said after the vote that he had received

commitments over the weekend from Kennedy and the White House.

Those include "an unprecedentedly close collaborative working

relationship" in which Kennedy and Cassidy will meet multiple

times a month.

Kennedy also gave Cassidy assurances over vaccines, as

the 70-year-old environmental lawyer has long sown doubts about

the safety and efficacy of vaccines that have helped curb

disease and prevent deaths for decades.

It is not clear whether Kennedy would be legally bound

to the commitments or how he would be held accountable to

upholding them.

He pledged not to take down any government health agency

statements that autism is not caused by vaccines, an assertion

proven by studies but which Kennedy has said is not proven.

Kennedy disputes the anti-vaccine characterization and

has said he would not prevent Americans from getting

inoculations.

"He (Kennedy) has also committed that he will work

within current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems

and not establish parallel systems," Cassidy said in a speech on

the Senate floor.

He said Kennedy had promised to honor decisions by the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's outside panel of

experts, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization

Practices, without changes.

Before the vote, Cassidy

was seen as a potential swing vote against Kennedy after he

said during a confirmation hearing last week that he was

struggling with the decision.

If Kennedy is confirmed in the full Senate, he will run

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees

more than $3 trillion in healthcare spending, including agencies

such as the Food and Drug Administration and the agency in

charge of Medicare and Medicaid health programs that provide

health insurance for over 140 million Americans.

Kennedy has faced opposition from health groups, Democrats,

family members and the Wall Street Journal and New York Post

editorial boards, who say he is unfit for the job because of his

role in the anti-vaccine movement.

Shares of vaccine manufacturers and packaged food

companies fell after the vote. Pfizer's ( PFE ) stock was down

1.8%, along with U.S. shares of its COVID-19 vaccine partner,

BioNTech , which was down 3%. Moderna ( MRNA )

was down 5.1% and Novavax ( NVAX ) down around 1%.

Shares of Hershey, Mondelez ( MDLZ ), Kraft Heinz ( KHC )

, General Mills ( GIS ) were all down 2%.

Kennedy, who created the phrase "Make America Healthy Again"

after he endorsed Trump for president last year, calls for

banning hundreds of food additives and chemicals. He has also

called for getting ultra-processed foods out of school lunches.

Some of Kennedy's supporters were upset over the number of

concessions he made to win Cassidy's vote and took to social

media platform X to call for the senator to face a Republican

primary challenger if he runs for the Senate again in 2026.

"Get Kennedy confirmed and primary Cassidy," one

supporter posted.

Now, Kennedy needs the support of at least 50 senators,

which would allow Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm

his nomination.

The Republican-controlled Senate has not rejected any of

Trump's nominees so far. His controversial defense secretary

pick, Pete Hegseth, squeaked by in a 51-50 vote after Vance was

needed to break a tie in January.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is due on Tuesday to vote

behind closed doors on former U.S. Representative Tulsi

Gabbard's nomination to become director of national

intelligence, another Trump nominee facing an uncertain path to

confirmation.