WASHINGTON — Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan, a Democrat running for Senate, filed articles of impeachment Wednesday against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making an all but certainly futile bid to charge him with undermining public health, diminishing decades of scientific and medical progress and imperiling the health of the American people.

In accusing Kennedy of an assault on the public health system that constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors, Stevens said the secretary had delayed biomedical innovation through the “far-reaching” and “haphazard” termination of working scientists. She cited Kennedy’s cancellation of $8.9 billion in federal research grants, and said he was “chilling medical innovation, including lifesaving clinical research” in what amounted to a violation of his oath of office.

With Republicans in control of Congress, it would be close to impossible for Stevens’ articles of impeachment to get a vote on the House floor or lead to a trial in the Senate.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Health Department, said Kennedy “remains focused on the work of improving Americans’ health and lowering costs, not on partisan political stunts that have no merit.”

Dem Leaders Are Not Backing the Impeachment

And though Stevens said she had discussed her impeachment push with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, Democratic leaders are not backing it. Some of her colleagues viewed it as the politically motivated move of a candidate who has struggled to gain traction in a heated primary, in which she is facing off against two dynamic candidates who are further to the left than she is.

“I am not one for political theater,” Stevens said in a brief interview Tuesday. “I am for standing up for the health and safety of the people I represent. It’s pretty clear that these are life-and-death issues for folks.”

The effort underscored how Kennedy, who has moved to reexamine the vaccines given to American children and violated several pledges he made to members of Congress to win confirmation, has become a top target for lawmakers, especially Democrats.

Vote Scheduled in Senate on Kennedy’s Leadership

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, has teed up a vote in the Senate on Wednesday that will offer lawmakers a chance to register their disapproval of Kennedy’s leadership. The measure would formally disapprove of the secretary’s decision in March to cancel a directive that required transparency and requests for public feedback on the health department’s policy changes, upending a standard established in 1971.

King’s move is less aggressive than Stevens’; it aims to offer Republican senators — some of whom have criticized Kennedy’s leadership — a way to publicly register their concerns without going so far as to call for his impeachment or removal, which they would be unlikely to do.

Stevens was approached about introducing the impeachment articles by the grassroots organization Stand Up for Science, which was founded in February and was looking for a champion for the move in Congress.

“People view impeachment as extreme,” said Colette Delawalla, the group’s founder, noting that she had encountered resistance from many Democrats to pursuing the tactic. “It is extreme. It’s not a small task and it’s not a small ask to do this.”

Delawalla added, “We need to push Congress to hold him accountable.”

Stevens’ Campaign for US Senate

Stevens is a centrist Democrat who may see a political upside in taking on the mantle of impeachment while running for Senate. Her Democratic opponents, Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed, have been generating enthusiasm and keeping pace with Stevens in terms of fundraising.

“This moment calls for bold leadership from serious lawmakers like myself,” Stevens said, noting that she often heard from Republican doctors whose work was being affected by Kennedy’s actions.

“Secretary Kennedy is carrying out a scientific coup d’état of America’s public health and his conduct warrants impeachment,” Stevens wrote in a letter to her colleagues.

She added: “Secretary Kennedy represents the single largest self-created threat to public health, public trust and the future of scientific progress in the United States. If we don’t act, Americans will suffer. The secretary must go.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Annie Karni

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