{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.alsobrooks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/alsobrooks-warren-and-senators-investigate-rfk-jr-s-unresolved-financial-conflicts-question-whether-his-family-is-profiting-from-bogus-vaccine/", "ALSOBROOKS,\u00a0WARREN,\u00a0AND\u00a0SENATORS\u00a0INVESTIGATE\u00a0RFK JR.\u2019S\u00a0UNRESOLVED FINANCIAL CONFLICTS,\u00a0QUESTION\u00a0WHETHER HIS FAMILY IS PROFITING FROM\u00a0BOGUS VACCINE LAWSUITS", "2026-07-30", "2026", "2026-07", "Democrat", "Senate", "MD", "Angela D. Alsobrooks", "A000382", "www.alsobrooks.senate.gov", "alsobrooks", "https://www.alsobrooks.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/", "scraper", "July 30, 2026\n\nText of Letter (PDF)\n\nWASHINGTON, DC \u2014 As reported in The Hill, U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) opened a new investigation into whether Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s family may be financially benefiting from a $50 million anti-vaccine settlement that his actions as Secretary could have influenced.\n\nIn June, Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck) announced that the company would pay $50 million to settle more than 200 lawsuits regarding the use of Gardasil, a safe, effective vaccine that prevents multiple types of cancer. The settlement covers lawsuits for which Secretary Kennedy was listed as the attorney of record and cases represented by Secretary Kennedy\u2019s former employer, Wisner Baum. Secretary Kennedy\u2019s son is currently employed at the same firm.\n\n\u201cThis settlement appears to reinforce a lucrative and dangerous playbook \u2013 litigators with ties to anti-vaccine organizations sue drug companies with scientifically dubious claims and undermine trust in vaccines and America\u2019s public health as a result,\u201d wrote the senators.\n\nDuring his confirmation process last year, Secretary Kennedy revealed he was entitled to \u2014 and initially planned to keep \u2014 a 10 percent fee from settlements tied to cases he referred to Wisner Baum for the Gardasil lawsuit.\n\n\u201cThis arrangement was alarming,\u201d said the lawmakers, warning that Secretary Kennedy could influence public perception of Gardasil\u2019s safety and, in turn, the outcome of the lawsuits \u201cby publishing unfounded anti-vaccine information, influencing Merck\u2019s interest in a settlement, or adding unproven injuries to the vaccine injury table.\u201d\n\nAfter significant pressure from lawmakers, Secretary Kennedy agreed to transfer his stake in the Gardasil cases to his son, a move legal experts have called \u201ca loophole\u201d in federal ethics law. Secretary Kennedy refused to take any further steps to divest the Gardasil stake from his family.\n\n\u201cNow, it appears that your son could stand to gain millions of dollars from Merck\u2019s recent settlement agreement, raising fresh concerns about conflicts of interest,\u201d wrote the lawmakers.\n\nSecretary Kennedy has refused to recuse himself from various communications related to Gardasil and from making decisions related to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program \u2014 even while his former employer seeks awards from the program in dozens of cases. He has also refused to decline compensation from vaccine injury lawsuits.\n\n\u201cMerck\u2019s settlement focuses renewed scrutiny on your potential unresolved conflicts of interest as Secretary\u2026The settlement \u2013 and the ongoing questions about whether you or your immediate family will benefit from it \u2013 raise further serious questions about any role HHS may have played in influencing the lawsuit\u2019s outcome,\u201d said the senators.\n\nThe lawmakers asked Secretary Kennedy to reveal whether he played any role in the settlement, how many of the Gardasil cases covered by the settlement he referred to Wisner Baum, and how much money he has received from vaccine injury lawsuits while serving as HHS Secretary by August 11, 2026.\n\nSenator Alsobrooks was the first Senator to call on RFK Jr. to resign or be fired. She has also led the Senate on oversight of RFK Jr\u2019s dangerous actions and rhetoric\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-31T07:49:23Z", "2026-07-31T07:50:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.alsobrooks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/alsobrooks-warren-and-senators-investigate-rfk-jr-s-unresolved-financial-conflicts-question-whether-his-family-is-profiting-from-bogus-vaccine/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.1709741558879614, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}