section_path: Secretary of Health and Human Services (2025–present)/Nomination and confirmation/Committee votes
section_name: Committee votes
paragraph_text: Committee votes
  
  On February 4, 2025, the Senate Committee on Finance voted 14–13 to forward Kennedy's nomination to a full Senate vote. The deciding vote was from Bill Cassidy, who was originally hesitant, but said he had received "serious commitments" from the Trump administration and "honest counsel" from Vice President JD Vance in exchange for his support of Kennedy's nomination. According to the Senate HELP Committee site, Cassidy said that he was a doctor who had practiced for 30 years before becoming a politician. He told the committee that he had a patient with acute hepatitis B who needed a liver transplant and had to be transported by Medi-vac. He called the transplant "an invasive, quarter-of-a-million-dollar surgery—in 2000—that, even if successful, would leave this young woman with a lifetime of $50,000 per year medical bills", adding, "As I saw her take off, I was so depressed. A $50 of vaccine could have prevented this all".
  
  Of the two committees that Kennedy spoke before, only the Senate Finance was to vote on his nomination.
  
  On February 4, 2025, the Senate Committee on Finance voted 14–13 to forward Kennedy's nomination to a full Senate vote. The deciding vote was from Bill Cassidy, who was originally hesitant, but said he had received "serious commitments" from the Trump administration and "honest counsel" from Vice President JD Vance in exchange for his support of Kennedy's nomination. According to the Senate HELP Committee site, Cassidy said that he was a doctor who had practiced for 30 years before becoming a politician. He told the committee that he had a patient with acute hepatitis B who needed a liver transplant and had to be transported by Medi-vac. He called the transplant "an invasive, quarter-of-a-million-dollar surgery—in 2000—that, even if successful, would leave this young woman with a lifetime of $50,000 per year medical bills", adding, "As I saw her take off, I was so depressed. A $50 of vaccine could have prevented this all".
  
  Of the two committees that Kennedy spoke before, only the Senate Finance was to vote on his nomination.