On February 13, 2025, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services in a 52-48 vote, after saying "As a physician, I stand firmly behind RFK Jr.'s nomination". 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. The grant cancellations forced the state to lay off 56 people at the Kansas health department while Kansas was fighting tuberculosis and measles outbreaks.
Marshall 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. He defended Kennedy's firing of the vaccine advisers and called the January 2026 cut in the childhood vaccine schedule "a great step in the right direction".
Roger Marshall's Votes and Statements on Vaccines, the CDC and Medical Research
- Marshall Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Cut State Public Health Grants and Fired the Vaccine Advisers. On February 13, 2025, Roger Marshall voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services; he was confirmed 52-48. Nine days earlier Marshall had said, "As a physician, I stand firmly behind RFK Jr.'s nomination". 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. 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.
- Marshall Voted to Confirm the Health Secretary Who Completed the U.S. Exit From the World Health Organization. Marshall 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 strains of flu."
- Marshall Voted to Confirm Jay Bhattacharya as NIH Director During the Largest Wave of Research Grant Cancellations on Record. On March 25, 2025, Marshall 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.
- Marshall Voted to Confirm FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, Who Narrowed Access to COVID Vaccines. On March 25, 2025, Marshall 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."
- Marshall Voted to Confirm Jim O'Neill, Who Ran the CDC as It Rewrote Vaccine Advice. On June 5, 2025, Marshall 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.
- Marshall Voted Against Protecting Bird Flu Response Staff and Funding in February 2025. On February 21, 2025, Marshall 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, wild birds, and other mammals," and in July the CDC ended its emergency response for H5N1 bird flu, a step KFF said can slow identification of outbreaks.
- Marshall Voted Against Sparing Global Disease Programs From the 2025 Rescission. On July 16, 2025, Marshall 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 Marshall 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.
- Marshall Cast a Deciding Vote to Let HHS Change Research Grants Without Public Comment in December 2025. On December 18, 2025, Marshall 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 a yes vote from Marshall would have passed it. Under the policy, NIH funding would no longer require public comments before changes.
- Marshall Defended the Firing of the Vaccine Advisers and Praised the Cut in the Childhood Vaccine Schedule. At a Senate hearing on September 4, 2025, Marshall told Kennedy, "The Hepatitis B vaccine makes no sense to me", referring to the shot given to newborns. On September 19, 2025, he said on Fox Business that "that’s the reason he fired all 17 people that were previously on this ACIP committee", defending the dismissals. On January 6, 2026, he said of HHS's revised childhood schedule, "I think this is a great step in the right direction", noting that "we did have 17 different viruses that we were vaccinating against". The January 2026 schedule cut the routine childhood vaccines from 13 to 7, dropping rotavirus, flu, COVID-19, hepatitis A, hepatitis B and meningococcal shots from the routine list; "A federal judge has temporarily blocked the revised HHS recommendations." In KFF's 2026 polling, six in ten disapprove (61%) of the administration's handling of vaccine policy.
What the Public Health and Research Cuts Under Officials Roger Marshall Confirmed Mean for Kansas
- Public health workers. After the Trump administration canceled the grants in March 2025, the cancellations forced the state to lay off 56 people at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Governor Laura Kelly said, at a time "when Kansas is in the midst of fighting two outbreaks, tuberculosis and measles." "Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained," because those states did not sue, KFF Health News found.
- Kansas City health department. In the Kansas City area, canceled federal grants had "paid for public health basics like vaccines for children, infectious disease tracking, and funding for mental health and addiction treatment," KCUR reported.
- Medical research. Researchers in the Kansas City region lost grant funding of $30.5 million in Missouri and $7.66 million in Kansas as of fall 2025, the Missouri Independent reported.
Frequently Asked Questions About Roger Marshall on Science and public health
What is Roger Marshall's record on science and public health under Trump?
Roger Marshall 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. In Kansas, which did not sue, the canceled grants forced the state to lay off 56 people, and Marshall publicly backed Kennedy's vaccine changes, calling the revised childhood schedule "a great step in the right direction".
Did Roger Marshall vote to confirm RFK Jr.?
Yes. Roger Marshall voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services on February 13, 2025, in a 52-48 vote, and he said he stood "firmly behind" the nomination as a physician. In a 2026 KFF poll, six in ten disapprove (61%) of the administration's handling of vaccine policy.
What has Roger Marshall said about the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns?
Roger Marshall told Kennedy at a September 2025 Senate hearing, "The Hepatitis B vaccine makes no sense to me", speaking of the dose given at birth. Three months later the vaccine committee Kennedy had rebuilt voted to end the 34-year-old recommendation that all newborns receive it within 24 hours of birth.
Why did Kansas lose CDC public health money when other states got theirs back?
Roger Marshall 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. Kansas did not sue, and it was among the neighboring states that collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained.
Last updated: 2026-10-25