Kennedy Says He Kept Every Promise He Made to the Senate. Four of Them Are Broken in the Public Record, With Dates.

He pledged to keep the vaccine advisory committee 'without changes,' then fired all 17 members. He said yes to preserving vaccination funding, then $11 billion in grants was pulled. The senator he made the promises to says they 'have been violated.'

The Health Secretary's answer to the senator who confirmed him was absolute. "I went through every promise that I made to them and I've kept them all," Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Monday, one day after Sen. Bill Cassidy - the Republican physician whose vote made him Secretary - said on national television that Kennedy's commitments "have been violated." [1][3]

The promises were specific, made on the record to win confirmation - and the reversals are just as documented. Here are four, with dates.

Promise one: the vaccine committee

Announcing his decisive vote on February 4, 2025, Cassidy told the Senate that Kennedy had committed to maintain the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices "without changes." In June 2025, Kennedy fired all 17 of its members in a single day and installed replacements including prominent vaccine skeptics. [2]

Promise two: the money

At confirmation, Cassidy asked directly: "Do you commit that you will not work to impound, divert, or otherwise reduce any funding appropriated by Congress for vaccination programs?" Kennedy answered: "Yes." Within weeks, the CDC pulled $11 billion in grants that funded local vaccination programs, and the NIH canceled dozens of research grants on vaccine hesitancy. [2]

Promise three: the CDC's autism page

Kennedy pledged that the CDC website would keep its statements that vaccines do not cause autism. In late 2025 the page was altered to cast doubt on them. [3]

Promise four: the childhood schedule

Kennedy told Sen. Elizabeth Warren, "I support the childhood schedule." The CDC has since dropped universal recommendations for seven childhood immunizations. [2]

What it means at the pharmacy counter

These are not Beltway process stories. The committee that was fired decides which vaccines insurers must cover without copays; the pulled grants funded the county clinics that run back-to-school shot drives; the altered webpage is where a worried parent looks at 2 a.m.; the schedule is what a pediatrician hands you at the twelve-month visit. Each promise had a person on the other end of it, which is why senators demanded them in writing before handing over the department. [2][3]

Cassidy's own summary is hard to improve on: "If you build public health upon a foundation of lies, then you're going to have the absence of adequate public health." [3] The Secretary says every promise was kept. The record - his own agency's actions, dated and documented - says four were not. [2]

See something we got wrong? Report an error and we will look into it. We correct the record, including our own.