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In today's newsletter:

▪ RFK Jr. set for grilling on Capitol Hill

▪ Tech CEOs head to White House

▪ Epstein victims push for disclosures

▪ Trump to speak with Zelensky

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face tough questions today from senators who worry his management of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as a vaccine skeptic has spawned national confusion and raised the stakes for public health.

President Trump, who frequently praises the secretary and the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, shows no signs of reining in his iconoclastic Cabinet pick. Kennedy has rejected some evidence-based medical research as well as mainstream disease experts who for decades have championed the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

The secretary needs to “restore public trust,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday as he predicted “hard questions” today from fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee. Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and member of the panel, voted for Kennedy’s confirmation but has pushed back against the secretary while stepping carefully ahead of his reelection bid next year.

Kennedy is a former lawyer who has asserted without scientific evidence that autism is linked to vaccines, said childhood inoculations can safely be optional, and criticized the money and influence of pharmaceutical companies, such as those that joined forces with the government during the pandemic for Operation Warp Speed in Trump's first term.

Lawmakers are expected to ask Kennedy about his recent firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez after she refused the HHS chief's invitation to resign a month after senators voted 51 to 47 to confirm her for the role.

Monarez’s pushback against Kennedy’s efforts to assert control over federal vaccine guidance is at the center of the fight. Several top CDC leaders resigned over Kennedy's push to oust the director, and they went public with their concerns. Current and former HHS staff are also calling for the Cabinet member to resign.

Former officials criticize Kennedy for firing all the members of an influential CDC panel that makes recommendations on vaccinations. He replaced them with his own choices, some of whom are known anti-vaccine activists. He slashed $500 million in mRNA vaccine research and announced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is limiting this fall’s COVID shot approval without a prescription to people 65 and older and those with underlying medical conditions.

Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) released a report this morning detailing the “unmitigated disaster” of Kennedy’s leadership to date.

Trump, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October 2020, said two months later that the speedy development of coronavirus vaccines was a major achievement. But conservative resistance in key red states to nationwide lockdowns, masking and months of evolving public health protocols during the pandemic created political dilemmas for the president with his base.

“I would say that because somebody's supportive of, or in favor of, vaccines is not disqualifying for that job," Thune said of the CDC. "Obviously, he’s got to have people in these positions that have some stability and hopefully command the trust of the American people."

The evolving split between public health experts and the Kennedy-overhauled HHS, including the FDA, sparked rebukes of the administration from scientists and medical doctors who are advising parents with children and others to confer with physicians about vaccines rather than accept muddied federal guidance they insist could cost lives.

Amid the federal upheaval, three Democratic-led states — California, Oregon and Washington — announced Wednesday they are banding together to review scientific data and make their own vaccine recommendations. Governors of the states in a statement called the CDC "a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science."

▪ The Hill: Schools prepare for the worst as RFK Jr. reshapes the vaccine landscape.

NO MANDATES: Florida on Wednesday announced it plans to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates, including for schoolchildren, rejecting decades of public health advice and protocols long followed by states to safeguard populations from outbreaks of communicable diseases.

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a physician, said of vaccine mandates that “every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” he added on Wednesday. “Your body is a gift from God.”

Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and formerly a cardiovascular surgeon before shifting to television and politics, told Fox News he supports the Sunshine State’s plans to lift all vaccine mandates.

FIRST IN THE HILL: Trump today will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for the first event in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden.

According to an invite list obtained by The Hill, guests will include Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, among others. The gathering will take place after CEOs and tech leaders attend a White House AI event hosted by first lady Melania Trump.

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