Chris Klomp, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Deputy Health and Human Services secretary, was approved by the Senate Finance Committee despite concerns from Democrats about his role helping the administration reach deals with pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of prescription drugs.
Klomp, who has been serving as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s top adviser since February, was approved on Thursday in a vote of 15-12, advancing to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) joined all Republicans on the committee to move Klomp’s nomination forward.
Klomp has risen quickly through the ranks at HHS since the beginning of Trump’s second term. He initially joined the administration in 2025 as the director of Medicare, serving under Dr. Mehmet Oz at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In that role, Klomp distinguished himself as a chief negotiator with pharmaceutical companies for the president’s “most-favored nation” drug price deals, and was subsequently appointed as Kennedy’s chief counselor.
The MFN drug-pricing deals, reached with 26 pharmaceutical companies to lower U.S. prescription prices to match those of developing nations, have been the centerpiece of the Trump administration’s affordability agenda ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) said in his opening statement that Klomp made the case during his confirmation hearing that he is best suited for the second-in-command role at HHS with the job of “aligning people, policy, technology, and resources around clear objectives and measurable results.”
“I appreciated his commitment to ensuring that HHS effectively carries out its mission and empowers its talented workforce to address the pressing health challenges facing our country,” Crapo said.
Klomp has received praise from Trump for spearheading the MFN negotiations, but his involvement in the pharmaceutical deals has led to Democrats raising criticisms about his proximity to the industry.
Before joining the Trump administration, Klomp founded and ran an electronic medical records company, which he eventually sold in 2020. He subsequently advised various upstart healthcare companies, including the fertility benefits company Maven, which provides in vitro fertilization and surrogacy care.
During Klomp’s Senate Finance hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in particular lambasted Klomp about the secrecy of the administration’s deals, demanding that he “show [her] the receipts.”
Warren said she and others in Congress would like to see “what was given away in these contracts” as incentives for drug companies to voluntarily lower their prices, such as tariff exemptions or fast-tracked approvals from the Food and Drug Administration.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking Democrat on the committee, criticized Klomp as being unwilling to share details about the pharmaceutical deals with members of the committee.
“All we have received are excuses and misrepresentation,” Wyden said. “I laid out in writing each request I made to provide the facts to the American people. Until these details are made public, I will keep fighting to impede Mr. Klomp’s nomination.”
Klomp was also pressed by Democrats about his loyalty to both the president and Kennedy and whether he is free to disagree with them. In particular, Democrats wanted to know whether Klomp agreed with Kennedy and Trump that childhood vaccines may be linked to autism.
“I have plenty of disagreements with the secretary, and I express those plainly and candidly,” Klomp said. “I have a reputation for speaking extremely plainly, and in that process, I have earned the trust of the secretary and the president. They always know where I stand. It isn’t always on the same page as them.”
When asked directly by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) about whether the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine causes autism, Klomp said he has “not seen a preponderance of evidence that suggests it causes autism.”