The hearings were packed to capacity with protesters and fans, while the spillover crowd hung out in hallways and overflow rooms.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face the Senate Health Committee on Thursday morning for a second day of confirmation hearings, after testifying before the Senare Finance Committee on Wednesday.

Kyra Kennedy, 29, is the youngest daughter of health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Sanders, the senior minority party member on the committee, pressed Kennedy to concede that health care was a human right, as his father, Robert F. Kennedy, and his uncles, John F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, had done. Kennedy again did not give a definitive answer.

What to know from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s hearings before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Thursday.

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, warned senators of her “predator” cousin ahead of his first confirmation hearing on Wednesday. In a letter first reported by The Washington Post, she wrote that his victims included family members and parents of sick children.

President Donald Trump's new appointee to head US Human and Health Services, Robert F. Kennedy, is likely to make some changes to Medicaid, his testimony to the Senate Finance Committee revealed Wednesday.

If approved, Kennedy will control a $1.7 trillion agency that oversees food and hospital inspections, hundreds of health clinics, vaccine recommendations and health insurance for roughly half the country.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said vaccines are not safe. His support for abortion access has made conservatives uncomfortable.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will stand before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee Thursday as President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

Attacks on scientific expertise have been increasing, especially in politics. Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is among the more prominent people who have done that.

As he seeks to lead the health department, Mr. Kennedy wore a thin tie dotted with feathered creatures to cap a classic suit.