On February 13, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services in a 52-48 vote. Kennedy's department moved to pull back $11.4 billion from state and local health departments, fired the CDC's vaccine advisers and completed the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization, and the CDC lost 30%, or more than 3,800 employees, between March 2025 and May 2026. In Nebraska, nearly $100 million in funding already disbursed to public health programs was clawed back, more than half of it for detecting and responding to infectious diseases.
Ricketts also voted to confirm NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and Deputy Health Secretary Jim O'Neill, and he voted against amendments to protect bird flu response funding and global disease programs.
Pete Ricketts's Votes on Vaccines, the CDC and Medical Research
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Cut State Public Health Grants and Fired the Vaccine Advisers. On February 13, 2025, Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services; he was confirmed 52-48. In March 2025 his department moved to pull back $11.4 billion in pandemic-era money that states were using for disease tracking, labs and vaccination, and canceled nearly 700 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants nationwide; in blue states, nearly 80% of the CDC grant cuts have been restored after those states sued, compared with fewer than 5% in red states, according to KFF Health News. In June 2025 Kennedy dismissed all 17 sitting members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, which later voted to end the 34-year-old recommendation that all newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine. In January 2026 HHS tried to cut the number of routine childhood vaccines from 13 to 7, a change a federal judge has temporarily blocked. The CDC lost 30%, or more than 3,800 employees, between March 2025 and May 2026, according to a union dashboard built on federal personnel data.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Health Secretary Who Completed the U.S. Exit From the World Health Organization. Ricketts voted to confirm Kennedy on February 13, 2025, and the withdrawal ordered by President Trump in January 2025 was completed by Kennedy's department and the State Department on January 22, 2026 (AP via Spectrum News). Officials acknowledged the country had lost access to data from other countries that could give America an early warning of disease threats and is no longer participating in global flu information-sharing that guides vaccine design; the Infectious Diseases Society of America warned this will severely hamper efforts to match vaccines to circulating flu strains.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Jay Bhattacharya as NIH Director During the Largest Wave of Research Grant Cancellations on Record. On March 25, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health. Between February and August 2025 the agency terminated 2,291 active grants, rescinding $2.45 billion; in the 13 years before 2025, the NIH terminated fewer than six grants midstream, according to the Congressional Research Service. The cuts interrupted nearly 1 in 30 clinical trials, affecting more than 74,000 patients in research on cancer, infectious disease and other conditions. In April 2026, while also overseeing the CDC, Bhattacharya held back publication of a CDC study on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, KFF reported.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, Who Narrowed Access to COVID Vaccines. On March 25, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Martin Makary as Commissioner of Food and Drugs. In 2025 the FDA limited the approval to persons 65 and older and people with high-risk conditions, after earlier approvals covered everyone 6 months and up, and more than 3,500 FDA employees were laid off, leaving inspectors saying you can’t inspect as many sites.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Jim O'Neill, Who Ran the CDC as It Rewrote Vaccine Advice. On June 5, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Jim O'Neill as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services. After the White House removed Monarez as CDC director in August 2025, O'Neill led the agency, which stopped recommending the combined MMRV shot for children under 4, so insurers will no longer be required to cover this vaccine at no cost, and posted a page saying studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.
- Ricketts Voted Against Protecting Bird Flu Response Staff and Funding in February 2025. On February 21, 2025, Ricketts voted no on an amendment to the budget resolution relating to preventing reductions in funding and staffing necessary to respond to, control, and prevent avian flu; it failed 47-53. In May 2025 the Health and Human Services Department terminated a $590 million award to develop a bird flu vaccine, amid continued circulation of H5N1 in US dairy cattle, poultry flocks, and in July the CDC ended its emergency response for H5N1 bird flu, a step KFF said can slow identification of outbreaks.
- Ricketts Voted Against Sparing Global Disease Programs From the 2025 Rescission. On July 16, 2025, Ricketts voted no on Senator Adam Schiff's amendment to reduce the amount rescinded from Global Health programs to preserve funding for programs addressing diseases, which would have cut the rescission from $500 million to $66 million and limited it to unspent HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other disease funds (Congressional Record). It failed 46-51, and the next day Ricketts voted for the rescissions bill. USAID, which ran most of these programs, shut down after cancelling 83% of its programs; a study in The Lancet projected that, if all the aid cuts stand, somewhere between 8 and 19 million people could die by 2030, a projection covering all the aid cuts, not this rescission alone.
- Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote to Let HHS Change Research Grants Without Public Comment in December 2025. On December 18, 2025, Ricketts voted no on S.J.Res. 82, which would have overturned Kennedy's policy ending public comment requirement for HHS grants and contracts. It failed 50-50, so his vote was one it could not lose. Under the policy, NIH funding would no longer require public comments before changes.
What the Public Health and Research Cuts Under Officials Pete Ricketts Confirmed Mean for Nebraska
- Public health money taken back. Nebraska public health programs lost nearly $100 million in funding already disbursed when Kennedy's department canceled the grants in March 2025, Flatwater Free Press reported. More than half was money to detect, prevent and respond to infectious diseases; nearly $19 million was for substance abuse and mental health, and more than $15 million was for childhood immunization grants to the state. The East Central District Health Department lost $370,000 it planned to use to clean up homes with high lead levels in Boone, Colfax, Nance and Platte counties.
- No grants restored. Nebraska did not join the states that sued, and Nebraska is not among these 23 states covered by the court order, Flatwater reported. KFF Health News found that Nebraska and the neighboring states that did not sue collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained.
- University research. KFF Health News found that the National Institutes of Health terminated grants at flagship state schools in places such as Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Nebraska, and Texas, and Flatwater reported that studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and infectious-disease awards at the University of Nebraska Medical Center were cut.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Science and public health
What is Pete Ricketts's record on science and public health under Trump?
Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department canceled CDC grants, fired the vaccine advisory committee, completed the exit from the World Health Organization and cut the CDC's staff by 30%. He also voted to confirm Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Makary and Jim O'Neill, and against protecting bird flu funding and global disease programs. Nebraska, which did not sue, lost nearly $100 million in public health money.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to confirm RFK Jr.?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13, 2025, in a 52-48 vote. In a 2026 KFF poll, six in ten disapprove (61%) of the administration's handling of vaccine policy.
Why did Nebraska lose CDC public health money when other states got theirs back?
Pete Ricketts voted to confirm the health secretary whose department canceled the grants, and the money came back mostly in states that sued: in blue states, nearly 80% of the CDC grant cuts have been restored, KFF Health News found. Nebraska did not sue, so its health departments absorbed the cuts, including its childhood immunization grants.
Last updated: 2026-10-25