Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
The Tone of Our Country Has Changed — And Americans Can See and Feel It Everywhere

The Tone of Our Country Has Changed — And Americans Can See and Feel It Everywhere

Woman voting on election day

Which Proportional Voting System Best Fits America’s Constraints?

Woman holding out an empty wallet at a table.

More Whites Live in Poverty than Either Blacks or Hispanics - Correcting the Perception of Poverty

NATO Has an Article 5. It Doesn't Have an Iran Policy

NATO Has an Article 5. It Doesn't Have an Iran Policy

Red rock formations in the "Valley of the Gods."

When Public Lands Become Real Estate

Senate confirms RFK. Jr as the nation's health secretary

News

Senate confirms RFK. Jr as the nation's health secretary

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies during a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Building on January 29, 2025 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
Hugo Balta
By Hugo BaltaFeb 14, 2025
Hugo Balta
Hugo Balta is a journalist, educator, and communicator. Hugo is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network, a trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network, and an adjunct professor teaching journalism courses.
See More Writings by author

On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Donald Trump's administration, with a narrow vote of 52-48 largely following party lines.

“Our plans are radical transparency and returning gold standard science [to] NIH, the FDA and CDC, and ending the corruption, ending the corporate capture [of] those agencies, getting rid of the people on those panels that have conflicts of interest,” Kennedy said. “We can do unadorned and unimpeded science rather than the kind of product that is coming out of those agencies,” The Hill reported him saying.

His confirmation hearings were marked by significant controversy, particularly due to his previous statements linking vaccines to autism, a claim that has been widely discredited by scientific research.

Notably, Sen. Mitch McConnell was the only Republican to oppose Kennedy's nomination, citing his belief in the value of vaccines based on personal experience and scientific evidence.

"I'm a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I've watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world," McConnell said after the Kennedy vote. Fox News reported him saying, "I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles."

Kennedy has stated that he is not anti-vaccine but advocates for vaccine safety and informed consent regarding medical decisions.

The founder of one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine groups will oversee a vast health portfolio, including vaccine-related policies, amid ongoing public health and safety debates.

SUGGESTION: RFK Jr. and Making America Healthy Again


Politician Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC) (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)


. Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum.


Latest news

President Trump Claims To Care About Interference in US Elections While He Is Doing Everything To Eliminate the Protections
Elections

President Trump Claims To Care About Interference in US Elections While He Is Doing Everything To Eliminate the Protections

CT election security group honors 10 years of fighting for democracy
Elections

CT election security group honors 10 years of fighting for democracy

Read More

Court’s Slaughter Decision Hands Presidents Sweeping New Authority

U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.

Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)

Court’s Slaughter Decision Hands Presidents Sweeping New Authority

This series from Lawyers Defending American Democracy connects the words of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to current events that threaten democracy and the justice system. Each piece highlights the unique responsibility lawyers carry—through their oath, professional obligations, and roles in their communities—to help the public understand what’s at risk and to speak out when democratic principles are under threat. LDAD’s call to action is straightforward: as the Founders once did, we must recognize threats to constitutional values, demand accountability, and act to defend them.

In its recent decision in Trump v. Slaughter, a divided Supreme Court approved an expansive use of presidential power that upsets the Constitutional balance between Congress and the President. The Court approved the President’s summary dismissal of agency leaders (in this case, commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission), notwithstanding a statute signed by a former President and the Court's own precedent specifically forbidding such dismissals. This decision will further politicize and weaponize much of our federal government.

Keep ReadingShow less
Reclassifying Faith?: Inside the Department of War’s Revision to Its List of Religions
man holding his hands on open book
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Reclassifying Faith?: Inside the Department of War’s Revision to Its List of Religions

This nonpartisan policy brief, written by an ACE fellow, is republished by The Fulcrum as part of our partnership with the Alliance for Civic Engagement and our NextGen initiative — elevating student voices, strengthening civic education, and helping readers better understand democracy and public policy.

How Are Religions Recognized in the U.S. Military?

Keep ReadingShow less
Anti-gerrymandering sign

Anti-gerrymandering sign

Bill Clark/Getty Images

Don't Hold Your Breath Waiting for Politicians or Their Consultants to Fix Gerrymandering

2018, a nonprofit worker in Michigan named Katie Fahey posted a message online asking if anyone else was tired of politicians drawing their own districts. She had no campaign experience and no political base.

Within two years, the ballot initiative she built, called Voters Not Politicians, had written an independent redistricting commission into the Michigan constitution. Hollywood eventually made a documentary about it, Slay the Dragon, which is a fairly accurate description of what she had actually done.

Keep ReadingShow less
Protestors holding signs outside of the Idaho statehouse.

Protesters rally for abortion rights outside of the Idaho Statehouse in downtown Boise, Idaho, on May 14, 2022.

Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/AP

Idaho Voters Will Weigh In on One of the Strictest Abortion Bans in the Country

Idaho voters will weigh in on their state’s abortion laws this November. The secretary of state’s office certified a ballot measure that could, if passed, overturn one of the strictest bans in the country, the campaign to restore abortion rights in Idaho confirmed on Monday.

The measure would enact a new law establishing a state right to “reproductive freedom,” which it defines as allowing residents to make their own decisions in areas including fertility treatment, contraception and abortion. But it would not amend the state’s constitution, meaning it could still be overturned by the state’s Republican legislature. Currently, Idaho bans abortion in nearly all circumstances, with a narrow exception if staying pregnant threatens someone’s life.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026