Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, concluded Thursday's hearing by saying he was "struggling" with the nomination due to Kennedy's vaccine positions. Kennedy notably refused to say vaccines don't cause autism as he faced pointed question from lawmakers.

The data is there,” GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy bluntly told the nominee for secretary of health and human services.

In a series of aggressive, rapid-fire questions to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his plans to replace career scientists at the Maryland-based National Institutes for Health and reform the country’s biggest health agency at large,