In My Opinion

Robert F Kennedy Jr.
needs to be appointed director of Health and Human Services:

RFK Jr. faced a barrage of lawfare from the Democratic National Committee to have him removed from ballots throughout the US.  New York State had perhaps the most egregious example of nasty legal challenges.  His campaign spent over a million dollars collecting over 100,000 signatures, only to be removed because of his NY residency address.  He’s voted in NY state for over two decades.

Likely the hostility of the DNC towards RFK Jr. is what pushed him to suspend his campaign and support President Trump instead.  This political maneuver likely helped President Trump win the election, and in exchange RFK has been nominated by President Trump to be director of Health and Human Services.

The average number of days for the US Senate to confirm presidential nominations has increased from 69.4 days under Reagan in 1984 to 192 days for Biden in 2020 (source: Senate Confirmations Slow to a Crawl  • Center for Presidential Transition).  It would be nice to see a reversal of this trend in 2024.

NY residents are urged to press our state senators to approve all nominations, and especially the nomination of RFK Jr.  While of late there has been concern about his priorities shifting from vaccine accountability, which is sorely needed after the pandemic, to instead food health, there is no better option waiting in the wings.

Please connect with Senators Gillibrand and Schumer and urge them to review and confirm all of President Trump’s nominations as quickly as possible.

Rich Purtell
Apalachin, NY resident