Impeaching RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary

Image: public domain.

This week, I’m focusing on three Democratic impeachment resolutions aimed at RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, and John Roberts.

What the legislation does

In December 2025, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI11) introduced articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..

The charges range from the more “qualitative,” like his espousal of vaccine skepticism, to the legalistic – including charges of withholding congressionally-mandated funding of family planning programs, disallowing public comments on some his department’s proposed measures, and unilaterally greenlighting certain medicines and drugs without getting all the required government approvals.

Context

RFK Jr., son of 1960s-era U.S. Sen. and Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, originally challenged President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination, running in many ways to Biden’s left. After a few months, he switched to an independent bid.

Polling around 5% as Election Day approached, Kennedy suspended his campaign and asked for meetings with both major-party candidates, to discuss a possible endorsement in exchange for an administration role. Republican candidate Donald Trump took the meeting, but Democratic candidate Kamala Harris did not.

Trump nominated Kennedy as Secretary of Health and Human Services, though he proved controversial particularly for his anti-vaccination (or at least “vaccine skeptical”) views. The Senate confirmed Kennedy by 52 to 48. No Democrat voted in favor, while one Republican voted against: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

In office, Kennedy’s controversial decisions include cancelling $500 million for research into mRNA vaccines, revamping the “food pyramid” with changes that some public health experts dispute, and supporting ending USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) which provided food and nutrition overseas. Kennedy called the agency “a sinister propagator of totalitarianism.”

While we’ll never know the road not taken, Kennedy likely would have sought an environmental role with a potential Harris administration. He spent years as an environmental lawyer and 25 years as a senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, though the NRDC now denounces him.

What supporters say

Impeachment supporters argue that, despite his job title, Kennedy’s leadership has provided less health and fewer human services.

He “has turned his back on science, on public health, and on the American people – spreading conspiracies and lies… and putting lives at risk,” Rep. Stevens said in a press release. “Under his watch, families are less safe and less healthy…, lifesaving research has been gutted, and vaccines have been restricted.”

“His actions are reckless, his leadership is harmful, and his tenure has become a direct threat to our nation’s health and security,” Rep. Stevens continued. “Congress cannot and will not stand by while one man dismantles decades of medical progress.”

What opponents say

Impeachment opponents counter that Kennedy is making controversial but necessary reforms to a health and medical system that almost everybody, across the political spectrum, agrees is broken.

“You are a breath of fresh air,” Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX19) told Kennedy at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing in April. “We may have disagreements on how to attack some of these problems, but you have a rare curiosity and objectivity and independence that you bring to this incredibly important leadership post for our country.”

“I think the problem with all these distortions is that we have too much special interest, too much incumbent resistance, too much parochial politics. And everyone in this town seems to be captured by it to some extent or to one extent or another,” Rep. Arrington continued. “You just seem to have been able to, through the fiery furnace of public scrutiny over the years, I don’t know what it is, but I love that you can come to this.”

What happens next

The impeachment attracted one cosponsor, a fellow Democrat, but with an asterisk: former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA14) cosponsored it in December, but resigned in April after sexual assault allegations. So no current member of Congress has signed on as a cosponsor, not even any Democrats.

It’s been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Odds of passage are low in the Republican-controlled chamber.

Impeachment requires a House majority vote, followed by a two-thirds Senate vote for actual removal from office.