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By Carey Gillam

Advocates for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda were gathered in Washington this week ahead of a senate committee hearing on Kennedy’s nomination to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – an event expected to put a spotlight on a number of hotly debated public and environmental health issues.

Kennedy is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance on Wednesday and then will appear for questioning by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday. Senators are expected to press the nominee on his views on a wide range of issues that deeply divide Americans, including vaccines, farming practices, and food policies.

President Donald Trump’s nomination of Kennedy, a lifelong Democrat from California who ran against Biden and Trump for president as an independent, has been among Trump’s most controversial nominations, drawing opposition from both parties and from an array of powerful corporate and public health interests.

Critics say Kennedy lacks the credentials to lead HHS, which has sweeping authority over many key health and science agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And they say his positions on certain issues discount scientific research and would endanger public health.

But proponents insist that Kennedy is more than qualified given his long history as an environmental lawyer who was named one of Time Magazine’s “Heroes for the Planet” for his work cleaning up and protecting waterways, and as the founder of a group called Children’s Health Defense, which has the stated mission of “ending childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure” and holding “responsible parties accountable.”

Both sides were trying to make their voices heard in advance of Wednesday’s hearing, which was declared the “most important hearing of all Trump’s Cabinet picks” by Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, according to NBC News.