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.

Kennedy's condition is called spasmodic dysphonia, which is a neurologic disorder that can affect the voice and speech by causing the muscles that generate a person’s voice to go into periods of spasm, according to Penn Medicine. It is a lifelong condition, but can be improved with treatment in some cases, according to Penn Medicine.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced aggressive questions about his skepticism of vaccines and other issues during the first of two scheduled Senate confirmation hearings.

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

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is seeking the support of the Republican-controlled Senate in his bid to become the nation’s top health official.

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 Jr. faced a plethora of tough questions on vaccines, abortion and public health policy during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday as President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

RFK Jr. had his confirmation hearing with the Senate Committee on his role as Department of Health and Human Services secretary. Find out more here.