AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Two of President Trump's most embattled Cabinet nominees cleared major procedural hurdles today on their paths to confirmation.

GEOFF BENNETT: The Senate Finance Committee voted along party lines to send to the full Senate Robert F. Kennedy's nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard's nomination to serve as director of national intelligence.

Our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, is following the Cabinet confirmation process and joins us now.

So, Lisa, let's start with HHS first, since that's one of the largest federal agencies.

What does the Kennedy committee vote mean?

LISA DESJARDINS: Unless something changes, RFK Jr. will become the next HHS secretary.

He has the votes to be confirmed at this point.

There are enough votes on the Senate floor for him.

Now, this is a 71-year-old, of course, who does not have a history or expertise in health care, other than the fact that he's an environmental lawyer and he spent years researching and writing about health care.

He does deserve credit for changing the conversation about processed foods.

And that's what we heard during his Senate confirmation hearings.

But at the same time, there are open doubts about his views and his past statements about the safety of vaccines, his refusal to accept studies that have shown there is no link between autism and vaccines.

And that raised real concerns about him.

You could hear these two very sharply view different views of him in committee today.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I, for one, think that it is time to put a disrupter in.

It is time to put somebody in there that's going to go wild.

But there are areas where I think that's exactly what we need and there are areas of Health and Human Services that if you touch the gold standard for the NIH and the CDC, then I will have a problem with that nominee and we will bring that up during oversight.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): Mr. Kennedy appears more obsessed in chasing conspiracy theories than chasing solutions to lower health care calls for working families in Georgia and to make sure that we are protected the last.

The thing we need is a dilettante dabbling in conspiracy theories at HHS.

LISA DESJARDINS: Now, this came down to a single Republican senator in that committee, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, himself a physician.

Now, he had expressed real concern during committee hearings about the vaccine views of Kennedy.

Today, he did vote yes, and he said because Kennedy agreed to certain things.

This is highly unusual.

Cassidy said on the Senate floor that Kennedy agreed that he will make no changes to the vaccine recommendations from HHS and that he would seek congressional approval for any major policy changes by HHS, and, get this, that Kennedy and Cassidy would meet regularly, multiple times a month.

Now, the thing here is, whatever agreement Kennedy has made, everyone knows, and Kennedy himself has said, President Trump calls the shots here.

Now, today, President Trump put a message on TRUTH Social in this regard about Kennedy's nomination, and he raised concerns about autism, which, of course, many Americans share.

But raising this today has led some critics to believe he is opening the door to more vaccine skepticism, he is not closing it, which is what Cassidy wants, and says he has a deal on.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's talk about Tulsi Gabbard, who has faced some criticism from Republicans in the past.

It appears no longer with the Senate Intelligence Committee advancing her nomination.

What does that suggest?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

Frankly, she also is on the path to confirmation, which is quite a turnaround from last week, when it was moving the other way.

Today, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted behind closed doors on partisan lines.

And I want to show three of the particular Republican senators we have been watching the closest.

These three raised doubts about her at different points, especially about her refusal to call Edward Snowden a traitor.

I spoke to Senator Collins.

She said she likes that Gabbard will reform the agency.

Senator Lankford there in the middle, I talked with him as well.

He said, in talking with her, he was reassured that she will protect classified programs he cares about, including warrantless wiretaps.

But Democrats say these Republicans are swallowing their own concerns across the board.

Yes, these are non-status quo nominees.

That's what Trump ran on.

But they say this is something else, and Democrats are just laying down and doing what Trump tells them -- Republicans.

GEOFF BENNETT: I know you're also tracking the news involving the FBI.

Bring us up to speed.

LISA DESJARDINS: Right.

There's a lot to talk about there.

First, we expect another confirmation.

That's Pam Bondi for attorney general.

Also on track right now is the FBI director nominee, Kash Patel.

Now, Democrats do want a second hearing with him, so we don't know when that would happen.

But it's important that this is one of the fastest paces we have ever seen of nominees being approved.

Real quick to look at where we're at right now, so far, when you look at all of the nominees moving through for the Cabinet positions, 10 of them, about half, have been approved.

That leaves the other half, but some big ones, like HHS, OMB, still to go.

Now, let's talk about the FBI positions, because those are on the verge of being confirmed.

Now, today was a deadline by Department of Justice asking for the names of every FBI officer who worked on the January 6 prosecutions and also the Mar-a-Lago classified document prosecutions, Trump prosecutions.

January 6, the largest prosecution in DOJ history, that's thousands of agents.

Today, there are two lawsuits filed by FBI agents in different forms seeking to block this, saying this was punitive, this is dangerous.

They're worried about the outing of these FBI agents' names, because, remember, those January 6 offenders were found guilty, some of them, of violence against officers.

And these FBI officers are worried that could come back at them.

They're also worried about losing their jobs.

So this is a very serious business happening, even without people confirmed yet to head these agencies.

GEOFF BENNETT: Indeed.

Lisa Desjardins, thanks so much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.