Kyra Kennedy, 29, is the youngest daughter of health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

What to know from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s hearings before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Thursday.

If approved, Kennedy will control a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees food and hospital inspections, hundreds of health clinics, vaccine recommendations and health insurance for roughly half the country.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees many of the country’s health agencies, from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As he seeks to lead the health department, Mr. Kennedy wore a thin tie dotted with feathered creatures to cap a classic suit.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said vaccines are not safe. His support for abortion access has made conservatives uncomfortable.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confronted with a number of his baseless claims and a vexing abortion issue. But Republican senators treaded lightly.

Sanders, the senior minority party member on the committee, pressed Kennedy to concede that health care was a human right, as his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, had done. Kennedy again did not give a definitive answer.

Kennedy also said gender-affirming care for children has "catastrophic" impacts and that children are not equipped to make judgments about receiving such care. He said he would re

Join Washington Post reporters for live coverage of the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the next secretary of health and human services. Libby Casey anchors live coverage with James Hohmann.