WASHINGTON — Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan, a Democrat running for Senate, filed articles of impeachment Wednesday against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making an all but certainly futile bid to charge him with undermining public health, diminishing decades of scientific and medical progress and imperiling the health of the American people.
In accusing Kennedy of an assault on the public health system that constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors, Stevens said the secretary had delayed biomedical innovation through the “far-reaching” and “haphazard” termination of working scientists. She cited Kennedy’s cancellation of $8.9 billion in federal research grants and said he was “chilling medical innovation, including lifesaving clinical research” in what amounted to a violation of his oath of office.
With Republicans in control of Congress, it would be close to impossible for Stevens’ articles of impeachment to get a vote on the House floor or lead to a trial in the Senate.
And though Stevens said she had discussed her impeachment push with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, Democratic leaders are not backing it. Some of her colleagues viewed it as the politically motivated move of a candidate who has struggled to gain traction in a heated primary, in which she is facing off against two dynamic candidates who are further to the left than she is.
“I am not one for political theater,” Stevens said in a brief interview Tuesday. “I am for standing up for the health and safety of the people I represent. It’s pretty clear that these are life-and-death issues for folks.”
The effort underscored how Kennedy, who has moved to reexamine the vaccines given to American children and violated several pledges he made to members of Congress to win confirmation, has become a top target for lawmakers, especially Democrats.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, on Wednesday teed up a vote in the Senate that will offer lawmakers a chance to register their disapproval of Kennedy’s leadership. The measure would formally disapprove of the secretary’s decision in March to cancel a directive that required transparency and requests for public feedback on the Health and Human Services Department’s policy changes, upending a standard established in 1971.
King’s move was less aggressive than Stevens’; it aimed to offer Republican senators — some of whom have criticized Kennedy’s leadership — a way to publicly register their concerns without going so far as to call for his impeachment or removal, which they would be unlikely to do. On Wednesday afternoon, it cleared its first hurdle with bipartisan support after three Republicans — Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — joined Democrats in voting to allow it to advance.
Stevens was approached about introducing the impeachment articles by the grassroots organization Stand Up for Science, which was founded in February and was looking for a champion for the move in Congress.
“People view impeachment as extreme,” said Colette Delawalla, the group’s founder, noting that she had encountered resistance from many Democrats to pursuing the tactic. “It is extreme. It’s not a small task, and it’s not a small ask to do this.”
Delawalla added, “We need to push Congress to hold him accountable.”
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